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How I Made $10,000 

in One Tear With 
4200 Hens 



BY 

JOSEPH H. TUMBACH 

II 



SFf?7 



Copyright, 1919 

iy Joseph H. Tumbach 

All rights reserved 



OEC -* 1919 



OCU536888 



INTRODUCTION 



This work is written for and is offered especially to 
those who are interested in or who contemplate engaging 
in commercial egg-farming for the profit to be derived 
from the operation. The writer frankly proclaims that 
he knows nothing whatever about the science or art of 
poultry breeding, and excepting for appreciating a beau- 
tiful bird he would- riot know a standard bred bird from an 
ordinary one. His right to offer this work is based solely 
on the fact that he has "made good'' in the work from a 
financial standpoint. His "biddies" have to their credit 
at this time a profit above their cost of keep in excess of 
forty thousand dollars. The profit in 1918 was out of 
proportion to previous years. This was due in a large 
measure to the fact that when the "poultry panic" set 
in in 1917 and many operators quit, discouraged at the 
outlook, the writer practically doubled his flock; and the 
greatest increase was made in young pullets. 

This is not a theoretical exposition. The writer has 
been in the work more than eight years and he is now 
engaged in it. He has raised and is raising not a few, 
but thousands of chicks each year; he has kept and is 
keeping thousands of hens. Fully 90 per cent of his work- 
ing hours for more than eight years have been spent work- 
ing among and with the birds. He has been through 
every stage of the work, from cleaning a hen house to 
building several that measure 16x150 feet; from selling 
a dozen eggs at retail to contracting a year's output of 
more than a million and a quarter. He has candled 
and put eggs into storage; he has hatched chicks by 



the hen method and in incubators ; brooded them in fire- 
less hovers in lots of 50 and by the stove method with 
more than two thousand in one lot and house. He has 
fought mites, lice and ticks; he has been through sieges 
of colds, swell-head, chicken-pox and canker — not with 
a mere handful of birds but with thousands of them, and 
there is a vast difference in the operation. 

The advice and recommendations he makes herein are 
based on that experience, and the methods herein out- 
lined are the methods he follows. Let it be understood 
that these plans and methods are by no means given out 
as the ONLY way to success. They are given simply 
as the plan and method by which he netted $10,000 in 
1918 from an average of 4200 hens, and by which he has 
persistently, year after year for more than six years, 
made a very handsome profit from the keeping of hens 
for commercial tgg production. With other methods and 
systems he is not herein concerned and he who seeks 
argument on comparison of plans and methods must look 
elsewhere. 

To the writer it seems that the great error in most 
books on poultry work lies in their failure to point out 
some definite, concrete plan on which to proceed. To a 
man totally ignorant of the practical side of the thing it 
is simply confusing to outline many plans of procedure, of 
which he may take his choice. It seems more reasonable 
to outline the definite plan and method by which a suc- 
cess has been achieved and let him follow that if he will, 
until, from his own experience, he is qualified to make the 
deviations and improvements which will lend themselves 
more readily to his particular case. 

For the benefit of those who are fearful of their lack 



of experience with poultry or with any form of farm life 
it may be noted that the writer was city born and bred, 
an accountant by profession, and that when he started 
he hardly knew a hen from a duck. 

Should the reader by chance be a poultryman of experi- 
ence his indulgence is craved for much to be found 
herein that will to him seem simple, even laughable. He 
is asked to remember that such things are addressed pri- 
marily to him or to her who knows as little about the 
birds and the work as the w r riter did when he started. 
A special effort is made to save the inexperienced, as far 
as may be possible, the anxieties and extreme discom- 
forts suffered by the writer during his first few years in 
the work, and to make plain and comparatively easy the 
many little points, simple in themselves, which to the 
beginner seem veritable mountains of trouble. 

But the writer makes bold to suggest also that even the 
experienced may find matters herein well worthy of 
thought and consideration. The problems concerning 
the industry are in many respects far from being solved, 
and unless those who operate on comparatively a large 
scale adopt a more liberal — it might even be said a franker 
attitude than is now commonly encountered — such prob- 
lems may never find a solution. This is to be regretted, 
especially so since it involves a financial loss not only to 
the individual operator but to the industry as a whole. 

Many points covered herein have their promptings from 
calls we have had for advice and counsel either from be- 
ginners or from others in the work who encounter some 
especial difficulty. These calls become more numerous 
every day and this work, unselfish in its prompting, may 
lighten the burden by affording an easy means of answer- 
ing such calls for help. 



In conclusion the writer gives it as his opinion that 
anyone who is willing- to work, who is willing to stay at 
home 365 days in the year, from early morning until late 
at night, for the first few years at least, who loves birds 
or animals — any one who has these qualifications — can, 
if he will, do as well or better than he has done. 

JOSEPH H. TUMBACH. 
Pasadena, Calif. 



PART ONE 

A discussion from the standpoint of one who wishes to 
enter the work of egg-farming, who is not yet located 
and has not bought property, but who wishes to buy 
land at the start. 



Location 

The important consideration in locating an egg farm is 
the matter of market. If you follow in the writer's foot- 
steps your main objective in life is the production of eggs 
for table use, Time is your greatest enemy because it 
works against your product the moment the egg is laid. 
Your problem then is to put that tgg on the market in 
the shortest possible time. For this reason, if you have 
the choice, locate your egg farm as close as you can to 
a good all-the-year-round market. Don't go out on the 
desert because land is cheap there. And don't think a 
location is first class because it is close to a summer or 
winter resort where people flock during a part of the 
year. You will have eggs to sell 12 rnonths in the year 
and you want a 12-month market. 

Your plant should be within reasonable trucking or 
shipping distance of some large marketing center where 
eggs are handled in large quantities. If poultry plants 
are being conducted in the section where you think of 
locating or starting, ask the people running such plants 
about the market facilities. If you intend starting in a 
new section, consider its location with reference to the 
primary marketing point — in California, for instance, San 
Francisco and Los Angeles are the two primary market- 
ing points. If no poultry people are available for the 



10 HOW I MADE $10 000 IN ONE YEAR 

information go into these cities, find the produce mar- 
keting centers, consult with egg dealers, (you can find 
them in the city directories if in no other way), and learn 
from them how they would treat you in the matter of 
buying your product. If you find a better market than 
they offer you well and good; but make certain before 
you start that there will be a ready market for eggs pro- 
duced in the section you have in mind. 

Locating in a section where there are other egg and 
poultry farms has many advantages. Where a consid- 
erable number of such farms are operated there is 
usually an arrangement by some egg buyer for regular 
trips by trucks to pick up the eggs and return empty 
cases. This is a big advantage. If you are entirely new 
to the work you will feel much more comfortable at it if 
there is someone within hailing distance should you get 
into serious doubt or trouble over any phase of the work. 

Be sure you are not following some real estate boom, 
though. The country is full of poultry-wrecks, the result 
of some real estate boomer advertising a tract of land 
as a poultry colony regardless of its fitness for such work. 
If your choice is some place where you can find a plant 
that has been in operation for years and that is not all 
run down at the heels and ready for the junk man, all the 
better. This would indicate that somebody made a go 
of chickens in that locality and if he did it you can. 

Your nearness to market means also that you will be 
close to feed and supplies — and the closer you are to a 
district where grain and feed is grown, the cheaper will 
be your feed bills. 

Avoid, if you can, locating your plant very close to a 



WITH 4200 HENS 11 

railroad. You will be raising baby chicks and carrying 
young pullets and laying hens. The sudden shrieking of 
locomotive whistles, clanging of bells and grinding of 
wheels will be a most harmful influence at all stages. 

Before locating your plant within the limits of a city 
or town, make sure there are no restrictions against 
chickens in large flocks, or that the chickens tnust not 
be kept a certain distance from an adjoining residence. 
Secure information on these points from the city or town 
officials — don't go on the opinion of the man from whom 
you would buy. 

Generally speaking, it is unwise to locate an tgg farm 
within the limits of a city. The neighbors may not 
object to one or two crowing roosters and cackling 
hens but it may seem different to them if one hundred 
roosters and several thousand hens provide the concert. 
Furthermore, ground for complaint is easily found when 
even a single animal is kept in a city, let alone thousands 
of hens. 

If, in seeking a location, you should encounter the 
remains of old poultry plants, try and learn the cause of 
their failure. The soil may be too heavy, making it sub- 
ject to standing pools of water and sticky mud; there 
may be sand fleas or ticks if it is very sandy; it may be 
too w r indy or stormy for hens to do well; it may be sub- 
ject to heavy fogs especially in the spring when the young 
stock is raised; it may be the land lies in a draw or de- 
pression where there is a heavy suction of air at night ; 
there may be a scant water supply. On the other hand, 
if none of these disadvantages are apparent, the people 
who tried there may have been at fault themselves ; if so, 



12 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR 

you might do well to buy some of the remains at a bar- 
gain and save a lot of money. More will be said on the 
latter score under "Buildings." 

Soil 

The ideal chicken soil is a light, sandy loam with a 
gentle slope to the south. This means perfect drainage 
away from your buildings. Where we are located it is 
unusual to find even a small pool of standing water 30 
minutes after the heaviest rain storm. This is almost 
ideal. 

Nor is drainage the only consideration. A light, loose 
soil lends itself much more readily to cultivation, it is 
an easy matter to keep the ground fresh, and the hens 
have an incentive to keep busy scratching. During the 
rainy season, such as we have in Southern California, the 
top soil is washed clean, the impurities sinking into lower 
levels. Such a soil requires far more water and fertiliza- 
tion for the growing of green stuff, but the advantages 
offset this tenfold. 

It is not impossible to successfully operate an egg 
farm on heavy soil. Our plant was located on a stiff 
"dobe" soil the first five years, where a crowbar had to 
be used to dig a post hole during the summer months, and 
where a sticky mud formed during the rainy season, and 
we laid the foundation for our success on that place, 
making good money at it after the first two years. We 
had only one attack of serious trouble during the five 
years, and as other people located on lighter soils had 
the same trouble at the same time, it seems reasonable 
to assume that the soil was not the cause of it. But 
heavy soil makes the work far more difficult and is much 



WITH 4200 HENS 13 

less pleasant for the hens ; so avoid the heavy soil if you 
can. 

Buildings and Yards 

There is no ideal building* for housing either chicks or 
hens — one that can be used in every country and every 
climate. Local weather conditions make modifications 
necessary wherever you may go. The writer has seen 
hens kept, on an egg-farming basis, in little houses with- 
out yards, the likes of which if attempted in a* southern 
climate where it really gets hot, would result in cooking 
the life out of the birds, and the other extreme was a 
case where no houses were used at any season of the 
year. If this were attempted in Maine or in Michigan, 
especially with Leghorns, the birds might not actuallv 
freeze to death but they would surely lose their combs 
and wattles and they would lay few if any eggs in the 
winter. 

Before deciding on the style of housing you will adopt, 
make inquiries and learn who is most successful in the 
district. There is always someone who stands out above 
the rest in making a success of the work. Learn from 
him or them how your brooder houses and laying houses 
had best be faced. Generally speaking a southern ex- 
posure is best, east is second choice, west third, and north 
last or not at all. The writer cannot recall seeing a suc- 
cessful poultry plant with houses faced north. There are 
some, of course, but they are rare. Unless your success- 
ful man is a faddist whose ideas are contrary to all gen- 
erally accepted rules for keeping hens you might well 
follow his lead both as to exposure and as to style or 
type of housing. 



14 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR 

But if you find a number of successfully conducted 
plants in the section, operating with practically the same 
style and type, you are safer in following that lead than 
in following the one. For instance, in Southern Califor- 
nia by far the greater number of poultrymen use the long, 
partially open-front laying house. Were you locating in 
this section your best plan would be to adopt that style. 
Of course you might come here and show us something 
new, something that would put our efforts in the shade, 
so to speak. But be sure you have enough money with 
you to enable you to tear down and rebuild should your 
innovation prove a failure. An experienced poultryman 
could go into almost any poultry section and make im- 
provements on the housing and methods commonly em- 
ployed, but a beginner usually lays out for himself a 
hard row to hoe when he attempts to learn the business 
and to start an innovation at one and the same time. The 
writer knows this to his cost — that is why his first two 
years resulted in failure. The hens were not a failure — 
they did remarkably well and showed a fine profit, but he 
could not get enough hens to make the total profit pay 
his living expenses, let alone a surplus for rainy days. 

This suggests another "don't" — don't be misled by re- 
ports you see giving the results of a certain system or 
method where a few hens were used to make the test. 
If you make a success of the work you will want at least 
one thousand and if you are ambitious, even moderately 
so, two thousand will be the least number you will carry. 
And it is absolutely foolhardy to base your ideas of the 
business and its returns on multiplying by one or two 
thousand the results per hen you can find in many reports 
of experiments. 



WITH 4200 HENS 15 

Another point worth making: If you are buying a 
place on which there are some old buildings (chicken 
houses or any other kind) and if your capital is limited 
or you wish to determine whether or not the work suits 
you, you can easily adapt them for use for a year or two. 
The writer made a perfectly satisfactory brooder house 
out of two old sheds, 7x12 feet, 6 feet high in front and 
4 feet in the rear, by tearing out the fronts of both and 
placing them nose to nose, making one building 12x14. 
There were several such sheds on the place. Two more 
were set twelve feet apart, the intervening space was 
roofed over, the back was connected up, resulting in one 
building 7x36; a "porch" 5 feet wide was run along the 
front (which was left wide open), sloping away from the 
main house, which kept out the rain and wind and the 
whole resulted in a very comfortable house 12x36 feet 
in which 350 hens were kept. A little ingenuity, or a day's 
wages to some good carpenter, might easily save you a 
lot of money at the start. 

Sand-papered and varnish finish are not a necessary 
adjunct to success. What you need primarily is a house 
in which you can absolutely control the inflow and outgo 
of air and which will keep out storms and rain. The de- 
tailed description of our buildings may serve as a useful 
guide as to the necessary features even though you do not 
adopt the plans as a whole. It is for this reason they are 
given, not with the idea that we have the only proper 
scheme of housing. 

Should you use or adapt old buildings one thing in 
particular you must do — they must be most thoroughly 
disinfected. This is best accomplished by spraying with 



16 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR 

the mixture we use, described in the chapter devoted to 
"Cleaning and Disinfecting." Cover every inch of that 
old building with this spray, inside and out, up and down 
and sidewise, and when you are through and have done 
a good job of it, go over it again. Five days later repeat 
the dose, and then you can feel that you have taken every 
human precaution against falling heir to trouble. It mat- 
ters not whether there ever was a chicken within 10 miles 
of the place, or if there has been nothing in the building 
for as many years, spray it as herein outlined. 

The question of yards and yard space is a much mooted 
one. Some people advocate shutting the birds into a 
house or coop and giving them no yard space at all be- 
cause yards are disease breeders. This seems to the 
writer to follow literally the biblical injunction "if thine 
eye offend thee, pluck it out." We use yards and believe 
they are conducive to the health, well-being and happi- 
ness of the birds and we enjoy their seeming enjoyment 
of that much freedom. 

Wallowing in loose moist earth seems to be one of the 
habits we cannot break biddie of, and there is grave ques- 
tion if we could afford to do it were she willing. There 
is this to be said, however — she is better off with no yard 
at all than to be on soil baked as hard as a brick and dry 
as a bone in summer and a mess of sticky mud in winter. 

Ninety-nine out of 100 poultrymen, including so far as 
we know, all the experiment stations, give their hens 
more or less yard space and your safest course is to fol- 
low this lead. You should allow enough space to each 
house so that you can shut off a part of the yard at regular 
intervals and freshen the ground by growing something 
on it. 



WITH 4200 HENS 17 

As to the size of the yard, no set rule can be given. 
If you were building a house 50 feet long, in which you 
will keep 500 hens, your best plan would be to have one 
yard in front of the house and one in back. On this 
plan if each yard were 30 feet deep and the length of the 
house, 50 feet, the hens would do nicely on it if the soil 
was reasonably loose and open. If it suited the shape 
of your land better, you might have a yard the length 
of the house and say 100 feet deep, divided in the center. 
Then again you might have the 30x50 yard in front of the 
house and one of the same size at either end. You will 
see later how our yards are arranged. 

Planning the Plant 

In selecting your land, avoid a hilly, steeply sloping lo- 
cation if you can. You can lay out a plant on anything 
short of straight up and down but it is a much harder 
problem and the assistance of an expert, practical poul- 
tryman is almost necessary to do it successfully. A long, 
narrow tract is harder to lay out than one oblong or near- 
ly square. If long enough and narrow enough you will 
walk yourself to death unless you install a tram car or use 
a motor car. 

The number of hens that can be kept on a given space 
is a question involving many problems and one that is 
asked us almost as frequently as "what do you feed your 
hens?" In attempting to answer it we must first of all 
agree that we will give the hens yards; the writer can- 
not hazard an opinion otherwise as he does not favor 
the no-yard idea. On this basis it is reasonable to count 
on 1000 hens to the acre with a minimum of 5 acres, or 



18 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR 

about 800 to the acre with a minimum of 2]/ 2 or 3 acres. 
There are many successful poultry plants in operation 
where this limit is exceeded, and it can be exceeded where 
the soil is especially good or where it is planned to break 
the operation every few years, sell off all the birds and 
take a vacation for a year while the whole system of 
yards is freshened by growing crops. This is the best 
answer that can be given to the question. 

When you have agreed on a deal for your land your 
first move should be to have it surveyed by a licensed sur- 
veyor. This is an ordinary business precaution. You 
ought to know that the land you are looking at is the 
land your deed will convey to you. Then have the sur- 
veyor make a plat of it for you on a fairly large scale. 
This you can use in making diagrams of the settings of 
your various buildings and yards. Make a drawing of the 
buildings and yards in different positions. If you do this 
you will be able to lay out the plant to much better ad- 
vantage than would be the case if you go at it in a ran- 
dom sort of fashion, and your place will look all the bet- 
ter for it. Then take a tape line and a lot of stakes and 
stake the plant on the ground as you have drawn it on 
your plat. Walk around from building to building as it 
would be ; consider the idea of having to go over the place 
in your daily rounds, the distance you would have to 
carry the feed stuffs and eggs. A proper arrangement of 
your plant at the start will save you many steps and a 
lot of time. 

Consider the drainage problem — you don't want the 
door of a building right in line with a possible flood dur- 
ing the season of heavy rains ; you want a high wall at 



WITH 4200 HENS 19 

that point. Mark it if you see a chance of this occurring 
so that your builder will give you a high wall there. 
Don't set your feed house in a depression if you can help 
it; if you can't avoid it, be sure you have high concrete 
walls all around, and have the cement man plaster the 
concrete with top dressing after it has set. This will make 
it waterproof; ordinary concrete is not. 

If your land slopes heavily you must bear in mind that 
your hens, and your chicks also, will help it in its sloping 
movement; most of their lives when they are outdoors 
will be spent in helping your land on its natural down- 
hill movement. The floor of your house on the down 
hill side should be level with the ground if you are on a 
modest slope ; on a heavy slope you can better afford to 
grade the building site so as to have a level space of 5 or 
6 feet in front of the building, even though this means 
a very high wall in back to turn the rain-flow. The back 
walls on some of our laying houses reach to within a foot 
of the dropping-boards. There is no disadvantage in this. 

If you can spare the space, leave a passageway of say 
10 feet between the outer lines of your property and your 
chicken yards and houses. This means double fences but 
it also means that you have a margin of safety for birds 
flying the fences of their yards and a margin of safety 
also against prowling animals — both four-and-two-legged. 
If your neighbor keeps hens there is less danger of the 
flocks becoming mixed and lice or sickness communi- 
cating. You can plant this passageway in green stuff 
or garden truck and it will not be wasted, although it 
will be a bit more troublesome to care for a long narrow 
strip of this kind. But it is well worth the effort. 




i 






WITH 4200 HENS 21 

If your land is bare, by all means plan on setting out 
fruit or nut trees. The hens will fertilize them for you 
and you will be wetting down the yards to keep the 
ground moist and obviate dust colds, so they will need 
little if any irrigation. We have never had nut trees in 
our yards but are considering resetting our old trees with 
walnuts. We have had apricots, peaches and prunes in 
the yards and derived some revenue from them although 
the birds eat and destroy a lot of the fruit ; of the three 
the prunes were harmed the least. 

You must allow space for growing green stuff. In 
the description of our plant and methods you will find this 
matter treated at length and you can without doubt obtain 
ideas there that can be adapted for your own place. Some 
think we are wasteful of space, especially in our brooder 
yards, but we make good use in one way or another of 
almost all the space we have. 

The Breed to Keep 

Under present prevailing conditions you have no choice 
in the matter of the breed of chickens to k£ep on an egg 
farm. It seems safe to say that at least 90 per cent of the 
hens on the commercial egg farms throughout the coun- 
try are White Leghorns. This being true you can ill 
afford to keep anything else. When you are safely estab- 
lished you will have hatching eggs to sell. If there is a 
commercial hatchery in the section where you locate the 
chances are all in favor of their wanting nothing but Leg- 
horn eggs; and with the kind of birds you will have, 
cared for as you will care for them, the hatchery will 
want your eggs. 



22 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR 

Your chances of selling eggs of another breed are slight 
in comparison. One can work up a sale for eggs from 
other breeds, and it is often possible to get better prices 
for them than for the Leghorns, but we are planning for 
the surest end of the thing. Again, you may lean towara 
the American breeds, such as the Rhode Island Reds, or 
the good old Plymouth Rock. You cannot afford them. 
They lay brown eggs and brown eggs are discounted in 
price in the primary markets. If you have just a hand- 
ful you can sell them to your neighbors or possibly to 
the corner groceryman at regular prices, but you cannot 
do that with the product of an egg farm. Other objec- 
tions might be advanced but it is a waste of time to dis- 
cuss the matter. 

We have often been asked about the advantages of 
crossing breeds. The work of Prof. Dryden leaves no 
room for doubt as to the advantages that may be derived 
from a scientific crossing of breeds. But until you are 
well along toward a comfortable financial surplus, derived 
from your egg-farming activities (which means that you 
will have had. a considerable and varied experience in 
handling chickens), you had better leave experiments in 
crossing breeds to the other fellow; and what has been 
said as to the sale of hatching eggs applies to the cross- 
breeding matter also. 

Profits to Be Expected 

An unqualified estimate of probable profits to be de- 
rived from egg-farming cannot be made at the time this 
is written (August, 1919). If the prices of eggs and of 
poultry feed stuffs remain at the level that has prevailed 



WITH 4200 HENS 23 

during the present calendar year (1919) a flock of well- 
bred and well-cared-for birds, averaging not less than half 
and half of young pullets and yearling hens, should net 
a profit of not less than $2.50 per bird. 

If prices recede to the pre-war level, when the whole- 
sale price of eggs (to the producer) dropped as low as 
20c during the storage months of March, April and May ; 
and if the price of the feed stuffs also declines to the 
pre-war level, when good feed-wheat could be bought in 
large quantities at about $1.75 per hundred (practically 
$1.00 per bushel) and first class yellow corn could be had 
at $2.00 per hundred ($1.12 per bushel), (both prices be- 
ing on basis of delivery in our barns in Southern Cali- 
fornia), under these conditions the net profit per bird with 
the same flock should be from $1.25 to $1.50. This is as 
good an estimate as anyone can make under the condi- 
tions prevailing. 

The figures are based on the writer's own experience, 
and the yield per bird, which of course governs the results, 
is based on the average production he has been able to 
secure, to-wit: from 140 to 150 eggs per pullet and from 
110 to 120 eggs from yearling hens. If you can better 
this production one year for another your profits will be 
increased. 

The estimates are based on selling the product for table 
use, at market quotations, which is the only safe basis 
to count on. Sales of eggs for hatching purposes would 
increase the profit per hen because of the premium re- 
ceived over the market price ; but as such sales are prob- 
lematical, the careful man bases his calculation on the 
assured price and considers any premium derived as 
"velvet." 



24 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR 

When to Start 

You may start either in the fall or in the spring. Fall- 
hatched chicks stand a good chance of being the offspring 
of good la}^ers. They mature and come into laying 
quicker than the spring hatched, and the broiler cock- 
erels usually bring better prices in the market. The dis- 
advantage lies in the size of the eggs. Fall-hatched pul- 
lets lay a very small egg at the start and the eggs are 
under normal size for several months at least ; this 
means a discount on price. September hatched birds will 
be laying in February and as this is the beginning of the 
flush-laying season and prices are always at the low ebb 
at that time, the very small eggs bring a very low price. 
These birds will go into a late moult, beginning usually 
in September, and in the year following their first moult 
they are more than likely to out-lay a spring hatched 
pullet. They will out-earn a spring hatched pullet in the 
first calendar year (January 1 to December 31) as their 
second moult will be late and they will be laying and 
earning money during July, August, September and Oc- 
tober, when the spring-hatched bird is in its lowest lay- 
ing period. Our experience with them indicates that one 
can well afford to carry a fall-hatched bird an extra sea- 
son. If you have them hatched in September, 1919, they 
will be laying in February, 1920; moulting in October, 
November and December, 1920; laying heavily until 
November, 1921 and you can afford to carry them until 
September or October, 1922. All of this is conditioned 
on your treating them properly, of course. 

The fall-hatched chicks will cost you more than those 
hatched in the spring whether you buy eggs for hatching, 
whether you use eggs from your own flock, or whether 



WITH 4200 HENS 25 

you buy baby chicks, because eggs are higher in price at 
that time and for the further reason that not only will 
the fertility of the eggs be lower but the hatchability of 
the fertile eggs will also be lower. But this increased cost 
will be offset to a large extent, if not entirely, by the fact 
that the cockerels sold as broilers w r ill bring a higher 
price, and the pullets will mature and be self-sustaining 
at an earlier date. 

If you w r ish to start in the fall, September 15th to Octo- 
ber 1st would be a good time to have your hatch come off. 

By far the greater proportion of chicks are brought off 
in March and April. These are generally considered the 
ideal months. But if you will have several broods ot 
chicks, and especially if this is your first experience, the 
writer recommends that you have one brood in the month 
of January, preferably about the middle of the month. 
This will give you some experience before you enter 
the heavier hatching season. The objection to January 
hatched chicks is the fact that they will moult the fol- 
lowing summer and fall. You can count on reaching 
the low ebb of tgg production from January hatched pul- 
lets in October and November, the season of highest 
prices. They will show an increase in eggs late in No- 
vember ; will gain fast in December, and by January will 
do as well or better than the spring-hatched birds that 
did not moult. And if you keep the accurate records you 
will be advised to keep you will find that in spite of their 
moult, your January hatched pullets have earned as much 
above the cost of feed on January 1st as your later hatched 
birds that did not moult. This is because they mature 
and become self-sustaining quicker than the later birds. 



26 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR 

The same objection may be made to the January as to 
the fall-hatched — their first eggs will be very small; but 
the eggs gain in size faster than the fall-hatched, and in 
addition these first small eggs will come into the market 
at a better time, the time when the flush of the lay is 
over and when prices are beginning to advance. The 
cockerels from a January hatch are ideal for breeders. 
We use nothing else. The broiler cockerels come in at 
the very peak of the market — if they are properly handled. 

Your heaviest broods of chicks should come ofif in 
March. If you have two lots, March 10th and March 
25th, would be good dates. If you have but one, let it be 
the 15th. The pullets from this hatch will give you their 
first eggs in August. They will be nearly if not quite 
self-sustaining in September — by which is meant they 
will pay for their feed — and will show a profit in Octo- 
ber. Some of the quicker-maturing ones will go through 
a light moult, but taking the flock as a whole the moult 
will not amount to much. Some years whole flocks of 
March pullets will go through a light moult in their 
first fall, but this is exceptional, due, usually, to extreme 
weather conditions. A mild spring and summer followed 
by an extremely hot spell early in September is likely 
to bring on a moult. Improper feeding or a sudden 
change of rations in August will do the same thing. 

Some years April hatched chicks will do as well and 
even better than those hatched in March but we prefer 
the latter month. We can offer no encouragement to the 
idea of hatching chicks for commercial egg-farming in 
May, June, July or August. 

Whenever you start, whether in the fall or in the 



WITH 4200 HENS 27 

spring, be absolutely certain that at least the brooder 
house is ready a month ahead of time. You might just 
as well have it ready a month ahead as one day. This is 
more important if you are entirely new to the work. 
You must not be rushed and bothered when you have 
your first brood of chicks on your hands. You want all 
the time in the world. If you are of a nervous disposition 
you will realize the force of this advice about two hours 
after your first chicks are turned loose in your brooder 
house. 



PART TWO 

The discussion enlarged, to include the idea of using a 
rented or leased place at the start. 



Capital Required 

So far as the chickens themselves are concerned it is 
comparatively easy to tell you what capital you must 
have. You can safely count on needing 85c to mature a 
pullet — $850 for one thousand — if you start at the time 
herein recommended. This is based on your selling the 
cockerels as broilers as soon as they are ready for market 
and applying the proceeds on your feed bills as you go 
along. It is based also on your starting with either hatch- 
ing eggs or baby chicks of a good strain from some com- 
mercial breeder or from some hatchery that specializes 
on first-class chicks for egg-farming purposes. Such 
chicks would cost you under present conditions from 
approximately 20c in January to 12 or 13c in March or 
April and perhaps 16c in September. Under pre-war con- 
ditions they would have cost perhaps 15c, 10c and 12c 
for the same months. 

If you go in for higher grade stock at the start, chicks 
from trap-nested flocks or from birds bred for show pur- 
poses as well as for utility, there is no telling what the 
chicks would cost you; any estimate made would be a 
mere guess. Let us say you pay 30c for the chicks in 
January. The writer's "guess" as to the cost of raising 
the pullets then would be $1.10, an increase of 25c. The 
increase is seemingly out of proportion but it is due to 
the fact that the broiler cockerels from the higher priced 



WITH 4200 HENS 29 

chicks bring you no more than those from the cheaper 
ones, and the pullet you raise must stand the extra cost 
of the cockerel you sell. Furthermore, the pullet raised 
must also stand the extra cost on the chicks that die off. 
This is the best estimate that can be given you for such 
a circumstance. 

The entire estimate is based on your raising what would 
be considered a fair percentage of your chicks. You may 
do better and it is easily possible to do far worse; but 
you ought to do at least as well as this. 

To carry the subject of capital required farther than 
this we must use a concrete illustration. Let us say, for 
instance, that you want to start on the basis of living ex- 
penses of $1,000 to $1,200 a year; that you want to keep 
enough hens to yield you that much. The safe and con- 
servative thing to do is to base your estimates on the 
profits that were to be expected in pre-war times which, 
you will recall, we set down at from $1.25 to $1.50 per 
hen. We all hope never to get back to that level, oi 
course. If we do not, then we will be better off than our 
illustrated basis; we will have more than our $1,000 to 
$1,200. Better that than to be disappointed. Let us say 
also that you are renting or will rent (or lease) the place 
to be used at the start. Let us say furthermore that you 
want to get started in March. Here then is what you 
must provide for: 

You must take possession of the place early in Jan- 
uary, say January 1st; this gives you time to clean up, 
put the brooder house in shape, plant the brooder yard 
(to freshen the ground), and to get some green stuff 
started. 



30 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR 

Your pullets should be self-sustaining by October 1st 
and should give you enough surplus in October to pay 
your rent and living expenses. We must bridge the gap 
between January and October. 

Say your rent is $30.00 per month — you will need 
$270.00 for rent from January to October. 

You want from $1,000 to $1,200 per year to live on — 
for nine months this would be let us say $900. 

We have tried to be conservative thus far, let us con- 
tinue on that plan and count on 1,000 pullets; for that 
number you should have $850.00. 

You will need some tools and appliances — $50.00 prop- 
erly spent will provide the things absolutely needed at 
the start. 

This gives us a total requirement of $2,070. 

There may be some special requirements. You may 
have to spend some money re-arranging, rebuilding or 
renovating the buildings on the place. We cannot esti- 
mate this — you will have to do that for yourself or have 
a carpenter do it for you. You will need troughs and 
chick fountains, later you will need larger sizes of same 
for the developing birds, and finally of a size suitable 
for matured birds. We will count on $80 for these 
items. This gives us a grand total then of $2,150. 

But we cannot quite afford to stop at this point. We 
are now on our feet; we have an income sufficient to take 
care of us but if we stop there we get into trouble. Per- 
haps half of the failures are due to that premature stop. 
We must bear in mind that these pullets — that began 
laying in August and laid heavily enough in October to 
pay not only their feed but our rent and living expenses 






WITH 4200 HENS 31 

beside — will reach the end of their string, so to speak. 
When we get along to August and September, nearly a 
year later, our biddies will go back on us ; they will be 
feeling the effects of the moult. And in October and No- 
vember we are exceedingly likely to be face to face with 
the proposition of putting them on half rations, to stand 
off the landlord, and either to quit eating our own meals 
or else to stand off the butcher, the baker and candlestick 
maker. 

We may have taken the best end of it in our estimates 
— quite likely we really have stored up a surplus ; but 
we are being cautious about the thing and not counting 
on the best possible results. So we must prepare for 
this season of shortage. We do it by repeating what we 
did last March. We take on another lot of baby chicks, 
part of them perhaps in January, the balance in March. 
For this we need another $850.00, and we should have it 
in sight before we get started. 

This gives us then a grand total of about $3,000. And 
this is the sum the writer would tell you you should 
have in sight if you want to go into the business on the 
basis outlined. You do not need it all at once ; the last 
$850 will not be needed until about a year after the 
start is made, and you may not need all of it at that, but 
you should know where it can be had if you do need it. 

And now we come to the parting of the ways : Are you 
content to make just your living expenses and rent, or do 
you want to forge ahead? 

If you are content to make your living and stop at that 
your best plan would be to sell off the first-raised pullets 
at the end of their first laying season, probably in Sep- 



32 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR 

tember or October. Your second pullets will take their 
place. You can easily sell them as layers if you are in 
a poultry-keeping district and you should get at least 
$1.00 each for them. In this way you will get back a 
large part if not all of the last $850 you needed, the cost 
of the second year's pullets. You might think that at 
$1.00 each you would get it all back and more, too, but 
you will have lost some of them — we all lose hens. 

Another plan would be to raise six or seven hundred 
pullets the second year, reducing your needed capital by 
the difference, and carry over three or four hundred of 
the first pullets through a second laying season, selling 
the remainder. Notice particularly that you are advised 
to raise and carry more pullets on this plan than yearling- 
hens. This is important. You must not lose sight, even 
for a moment, of the fact that you will be faced with 
three or four "lean" months in the fall of your second year 
when your first pullets are moulting, and you must cover 
those months by the earnings of newly-raised pullets. To 
do this you must have more new layers than old moulters. 
If you make the total flock 1,000 birds on this plan you 
are taking up what leeway you had between the prob- 
able earnings of 1,000 pullets and the $1,000 to $1,200 you 
thought you wanted to clear, and you will make less net 
money the second year than you did the first. You can 
help overcome this difference by mating the carry-over 
birds during your second spring and using your own eggs 
for hatching, also selling the surplus eggs for hatching 
purposes. 

In this way you should clear as much the second year 
as the first — if you find the market for the surplus hatch- 



i 



WITH 4200 HENS 33 

ing eggs. Look into the possibility of doing this before 
deciding which course to pursue. The first course, (sell- 
ing off the entire first flock), is the surest way. 

If you want to forge ahead, carry over all of the first 
year's pullets that are worth keeping — you will learn 
later how we cull them, — mate them all and provide all 
of your own hatching eggs. Even though you do not 
find an assured market for your surplus hatching eggs, 
you will save enough on your own chicks to make it 
worth while to mate these birds. 

Following this second plan you will have 1,000 pullets 
and perhaps 800 yearling hens the second year and then 
you are on a fair road to success and independence. You 
will need no more outside capital ; you will make enough 
surplus profit to enable you to build up as large a flock 
as you may be ambitious enough to strive for and if you 
follow in the writer's footsteps you will soon be buying 
a place of your own and putting up the kind of a plant 
you have meantime come to dream of as the ideal plant 
for an egg farm. 

Starting Small While Working Elsewhere 

The possibility of getting a start in the work while 
engaged in other work is a question concerning which we 
have had many inquiries. It is a pleasure to say this is 
entirely feasible and possible if you have the right kind 
of a wife. 

The means and method can best be illustrated by 
the case of a man who was employed on our place. 
I te left us to take a better paying- job as gardener on :r 
large estate. He lived on a city lot. Nearby was a 
vacant tract of several acres, which he rented or leased 
by the year. He built a brooder house on his own lot, 



34 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR 

where it would be close at hand, large enough to brood 
1,200 chicks. He had money enough to provide house- 
room for and to raise 500 pullets. We advised him to 
brood one lot in January and another in March, and to 
try for 500 pullets in each lot, with the idea of selling 
half of each lot when they were about three months old. 
It is quite as easy to brood 1,200 chicks as 600; the work 
and expense for fuel is no greater ; and there is no trouble 
in disposing of three months' old pullets at a good price. 

He followed this plan, and did so well with the January 
lot both as to the number he raised and the price he ob- 
tained for them that he was able to retain the March 
hatch entirely, giving him 750 pullets instead of the 500 
he thought was the maximum he could finance. He did 
the heavy part of the work mornings and evenings, his 
wife caring for the chicks during the day. His laying 
houses, following ours in plan, he built in separate sec- 
tions, each 16x16 feet. He is using the dirt floor. When 
he gets ready to move to a larger place of his own he can 
load these houses on low-slung moving trucks, set them 
where he wants them, fit them together, and he will have 
his long, continuous laying-house. He did all of his 
building work alone and unaided, putting in his time after 
he came home from his regular work. This is going after 
it strenuously, but it is the spirit that succeeds. 

There has been considerable discussion in our home as 
to who deserves the greater credit for his success — the 
man or his wife. (She was caring for three young chil- 
dren at the time). I give the man the greater credit — 
he picked his wife. But this case shows what can be 
done by people of the right kind. 



WITH 42U0 HENS 35 

How to Start. 

The easiest way to get started, so far as the birds are 
concerned, would be to buy pullets nearly or quite ma- 
tured. Many people base their plans on such a scheme. 

From a basic standpoint the idea is wrong and if you 
expect to succeed you had better get rid of the notion at 
the very start. There is only one secret of success in the 
work — the handling and raising of baby chicks, and unless 
you learn to do this you will fail. This is because of the 
uncertainty of being able to buy pullets of the kind you 
must have, birds that were hatched at the right time, the 
offspring of the right kind of stock, and a sufficient num- 
ber of them. There may be places where you can buy 
pullets to fill this bill, at prices you can afford to pay, 
but if so the writer is not aware of it. To put it stillj 
plainer, you must be able to place an order for say 1,000 
pullets, hatched March 1st to 30th, out of the right kind 
of stock, at a price not to exceed $1.50, for delivery about 
August 15th. At the price named you would be paying 
$650.00 more for the birds than the estimate made as to 
the cost of raising them yourself. 

You can buy pullets — and so-called pullets ; and at 
times you can pick up a few, even a few dozen, here 
and there that are worth buying. People who raised 
them are moving away or have grown tired of putting 
money into them without returns, or sickness disrupts 
the plan that caused them to be raised. At times some 
would-be egg-farmer becomes disgusted or his money 
gives out, and you might pick up several hundred. Under 
such circumstances you can buy them for a dollar and 
even less. Again, you can buy them of dealers. In the 



36 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR 

latter case the chances are ten to one that you are buy- 
ing someone's culls, or what he thinks are culls; and 
there is an even chance that you are buying some early 
moulting hens, especially if you get them along in Novem- 
ber or December. 

All of this is entirely too haphazard for you may find, 
when October 1st arrives, that instead of replacing your 
old hens with 1,000 pullets you have instead 200 or 300 
birds of more or less uncertain age and of still more 
uncertain pedigree, and your year is wasted, which means 
that you will have to look to other sources for your in- 
come and livelihood. 

The writer has known of one or two instances where 
people have bought as many as several hundred very 
good pullets that he himself would have bought had the 
chance ofifered ; and picking up a dozen birds that would 
make a wonderful showing is not unusual, but relying 
on such chances has no place in commercial egg-farming. 

You must learn the trick of caring for baby chicks. 
Whether you start with hatching eggs or with bab) 
chicks from some poultryman or from a commercial 
hatchery is immaterial so far as this phase of the matter 
is concerned. But if you do not care to undertake the 
drudgery and the close confinement involved in prop- 
erly brooding and handling baby chicks you had better 
not enter commercial egg-farming. 



PART THREE 

A description of The Tumbach Egg Farm from which 
ideas may be obtained as to the laying-out of a plant; 
and of the buildings used, from which ideas may be 
had as to buildings that have been proven practicable 
and conducive to success in Southern California. 



The Plant 

The Tumbach Egg Farm is laid out on a 5-acre tract 
just outside the city limits of Pasadena and about 16 
miles from the business center of Los Angeles. The loca- 
tion means not only quick communication with one of 
the greatest markets west of the Mississippi River, but 
proximity to city life with its conveniences and pleasures, 
and minus the annoyances of city restrictions. In reply 
to many inquiries the writer admits that this is high 
priced land for an egg farm. We figure we paid $1,000 
per acre for the privilege of living in this particular local- 
ity and that $500 per acre is the value from the stand- 
point of the business we are engaged in. (To be fair to 
the biddies let it be said they have paid the whole cost). 

Our experimental work was done on a leased place, 
this property being bought 3y 2 years ago. The plant, 
both as to location of the buildings and as to their type 
and character, is the result of year by year evolution on 
the leased place, in the course of which most of the suc- 
cessful egg farms in this section of the State were visited. 
Ideas were obtained from generous poultrymen whose 
courtesy the writer has already acknowledged and hereby 
acknowledges again. The land was surveyed ana 



WITH 4200 HENS 39 

platted and the location of the various buildings was the 
subject of study extending over a period of months. 

The soil is very light and sandy and the whole place 
is covered with old peach and prune trees. Reference 
to the plat will show how the grounds are laid out and 
the relative location of buildings and yards. 

Nearly an acre is given over to the residence and 
family orchard, this being on the best part of the land — 
the southeast corner. The long frontage on the boule- 
vard is planted to alfalfa, to a depth of from 125 to 175 
feet. This not only keeps the chickens and their equip- 
ment from becoming an eye sore to the neighborhood, 
(as they might be to some if they were directly on this 
much-traveled thoroughfare), but in addition the long 
stretch of alfalfa is not only very useful and necessary, 
but is also, for the greater part of the year, an attractive 
sight. 

The brooder houses and yards, you will see, are located 
nearest the residence. This is for quick accessibility at 
night if necessary. The cockerel house is just beyond the 
brooder houses. 

The main feed-house is located almost in the center of 
the plant. To have it so located means giving up a cer- 
tain amount of ground for a driveway to it; better that, 
better we think to make that much of an investment at 
the outset than to be spending hours of time and a world 
of labor, day after day, dragging feed stuff the further 
distance it would have to be carried if the feed were 
stored at one end of the plant. In one end of the feed 
house is the tool-room and place for the greens-cutter 
with its driving motor. 



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42 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR 

The egg-room, directly across from the feed house, is 
also centrally located. The trucks, in which the eggs are 
taken to market, drive right up to it. The car-shed next 
to it is for a little delivery car used on odd errands. The 
grain-sprouting shed with a little storage place for the 
grain which is to be sprouted are temporary arrange- 
ments. Eventually they will be made part of the egg- 
room building. 

The manure-box shown is used for dumping and meas- 
uring the manure as it is brought from the dropping 
boards. The manure is carted away by the purchaser im- 
mediately after each cleaning. 

On either side of the main feed house is a 150- foot lay- 
ing house with yards the length of the house and 100 feet 
deep. You will notice the yard gates open toward the 
feed house. Behind these two laying houses is a 12 foot 
passageway, and beyond the passageway are two more 
150 foot yards with a 150 foot laying house at the upper 
end of each. Between the two upper yards is a 12 foot 
passageway and between the two upper houses is a 12- 
foot mash-storage shed. The upper yards have gates 
both near the house, opening into the passageway, and 
in the lower end, opening toward the main feed house. 

The point about the arrangement is this : The grain 
feed is stored in the main feed house. The feed is carried 
into the lower yards through the side gates, the greatest 
carry being 150 feet either way; and for the upper yards 
it is carried through the lower gates, the furthest carry, 
when the yards are subdivided, being about 200 feet. 
When all four houses are tilled two men can easily feed 
the whole flock of 6,000 to 6,500 birds in 15 minutes. The 



WITH 4200 HENS 43 

mash for the two lower houses is laid down in the main 
feed house, and for the upper houses the delivery trucks 
back up the passageway and lay the mash down in the 
upper shed. One hundred and fifty feet either way is 
the extreme carry. 

An old shed is used for storing the feed for the young 
chicks, located just across the main road from the 
brooder houses. 

The hospital, observation and cull houses are located 
behind the cockerel house and near the main feed house. 

After more than three years of day by day use of this 
plant the writer can truthfully say that if he had it all to 
do over again he would not make a single change in the 
laying-out of the plant or the location of the several build- 
ings. 

The Buildings 
Brooder Houses 

The brooder houses, three at present with space alloted 
for a fourth, are each 14x24 feet. These buildings are not 
uniform and are of crude design and construction, having 
been used on the old plant. (See illustration page 84.) 
A gable roof is used. The sides are 5 feet high and the 
peak of the gable is 8^ feet high. The sills are laid on a 
concrete foundation, in which two ventilators are set to 
allow a circulation of air under the floor. A tongue-ana- 
groove flooring is used, driven up tight and top-nailed to 
keep it so. We have different arrangements of windows 
in each house. The most satisfactory is three 24x36 
inch single light sash in the south side of the building, 
and two 9x14 inch in the north side. The south lights are 
flush with the plate at the top and the bottom rests on a 



44 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR 

girth set to receive it. These windows open from the 
top. Hinges can be used on the bottom but we nail a 
very light strip along the bottom, close against the frame, 
which keeps it from working out; this scheme has the ad- 
vantage that the windows can be taken out entirely if 
desired. A strip of light muslin is tacked to each side ot 
the window, fastened to the wall, close up at the bottom, 
wider at the top ; this serves not only to hold the window 
in place when it is opened but also to keep direct drafts 
from striking down on the chicks. The little windows in 
the back wall are set close to the ends of the house up 
near the plate, and are nailed in place. The main purpose 
of these little windows is to help the chicks find the 
roosts. They seem to take more readily to the roost side 
of the house if there is even a little light there. 

A muslin curtain is hung over each of the front win- 
dows large enough to cover the glass completely. It is 
weighted at the bottom by nailing it between two laths, 
the laths extending several inches on each end. Nails are 
driven on each side of the window and a wire loop on the 
end of the lath allows the curtains to be rolled and 
hung up. 

Our most satisfactory brooder house is lined with 
tongue and groove lumber to a height of three feet. The 
other houses have a twelve inch board resting edgewise 
on the flooring, nailed to the studding or to false studs 
inserted, with a quarter round moulding in the corner ; 
above this a lining of tar paper extends to the plate. We 
do not use ceiling under the roof. A low ceiling may 
save fuel, but it makes the room too stuffy. 

The door is placed in either end, according to conveni- 



WITH 4200 HENS 45 

ence. But it should not be placed in the center under the 
gable, but to the south side, so as not to interfere with 
the roosts. 

The opening into the yards is placed in the front wall 
near one end, across the room from the main entrance. 
It is 12 inches high and 24 inches long. A slide is prefer- 
able. 

The roosts are made of ^x2-inch stuff running length- 
wise of the house, preferably in two or three sections, set 
4 inches apart <pn cross bars of lx3-inch. They are 
hinged with T hinges, the flange of the hinge fastening 
either to the tongue and groove lining or to the 12-inch 
board. They are set 8 inches high. Made in this way 
the roost can be hung against the wall until needed. 

Ventilation is provided by means of two airshafts, lOx 
24 inches, made absolutely airtight. The inlet shaft, 24 
inches high, is set to one side of the door, a hole being- 
cut in the floor to fit it. A slide cover fits over the top, 
arranged to slide away from the door. This makes it 
possible to control the amount of air admitted. A screen 
of 1-inch netting is tacked across the shaft just below the 
slide. 

The outlet shaft is set in the other end of the building, 
one edge of it resting against the ridge board. It is fas- 
tened against the outer wall and hangs 18 inches above 
the floor, extending through the roof to a height of 2 feet 
above the peak of the gable. A little gable covering on 
top keeps out the rain, the sides being left open for the air 
passage. These side openings are covered with 1-inch 
mesh wire. (We once found one of our many family cats 
sleeping warm and comfortable nine feet below the gable 



46 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR 

opening of the outlet shaft on the lower slide.) The out- 
flow of air is controlled by two slides. The lower one is 
at the very bottom of the shaft, arranged to slide away 
from the direction of the roosts. The upper one, 9x18 
inches, is in the face of the shaft 6 feet above the floor. 
This upper air slide, a valuable idea, was obtained from 
the Kresky Brooder Stove literature. The use of it will 
be learned in the discussion of brooding. 

We use the stove method of brooding. From the de- 
scription given it will be seen that we do not use the two- 
room, or cooling-room, plan. 

An automatic alarm system is in use in the brooder 
houses. This consists of a thermostatic plate with two 
points of contact, adjustable in both directions, wired to 
a bell (and batteries) located in the sleeping porch of the 
residence The thermostat is hung about 12 inches above 
the floor, 3 feet from the stove and facing the stove. Prop- 
erly adjusted, and this can be done only by considerable 
patient experimenting, this alarm system is well worth 
its cost both in money and in the time spent on it. The 
best of us are liable to overlook the fuel tank some mean, 
fretful day ; or a stove may go wrong even with a full 
fuel tank ; or the needle valve in the feed line may stick — 
we know from experience that the alarm system is val- 
uable. 

We have been asked why we build our brooder houses 
in separate units instead of having one long building, 
which would save walls, fuel and footsteps. The latter 
idea was considered and discarded because we do not care 
to risk all the eggs in one basket — the danger of fire is 
present wherever a stove is used, especially so when oil 



WITH 4200 HENS 47 

is the fuel and the floor is covered with straw. The 
burner must be cleaned regularly, and especially with 
very young chicks one cannot let the flame die out en- 
tirely; it would take too long to start it up again and 
bring the temperature back. The tiniest splash of burn- 
ing oil on the bed of warm straw would spell the doom of 
the house and all in it; and we think we have a chance 
to save the other houses when there is a reasonable space 
between. Ours are set from 15 to 20 feet apart. 

The brooder yards are each 40-50 feet wide and 90 feet 
long, subdivided into three sections. The first section is 
18x24 feet. It is surrounded by a 2-foot fence. (See il- 
lustration page 84.) An 8-inch board is used at the bot- 
tom and a 3-inch strip at the top. One-inch mesh netting 
covers the intervening space. A panel made of 12-inch 
boards is kept in the yards and on windy days, also when 
the chicks are first turned out, the panels are fastened 
into place, forming a 2-foot windbreak and shelter all 
around this first yard. A sloping 2-foot roof extends in- 
ward from this fence, about 30 inches high on the inner 
edge, forming shade in hot weather and protection dur- 
ing light rains when the chicks may be outdoors. 

Running water is provided in this first yard, under the 
roof, a shallow crock and a float valve being used. 

The second division of the yard is about 20x50 feet. This 
yard is enclosed by a fence with an 18-inch strip of 1^4- 
inch mesh netting at the bottom and 6 feet of 2-inch mesn 
netting above it, the base board being 10 inches wide. 
There is quite a saving in this form of fence construction. 
Twelve-inch lumber costs more in proportion than 10- 
inch ; and under present market conditions the difference 



4S HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR 

in price between \y 2 and 2-inch poultry netting is consid- 
erable. Where the netting joins it can be permanently 
fastened together by twisting it with a light nail. 

The third division of the yard, about 50x50 feet, is 
fenced with 2-inch mesh netting. Octagonal netting is 
preferable to the square kind that has graduated open- 
ings, for fencing growing chicks. The little chaps easily 
learn the trick of climbing up the square meshes until 
they reach an opening large enough to let them through. 

Our brooder yards are larger than common and it has 
been suggested that this is a waste of land. We think it 
a most beneficial practice to have a succession of yards 
in growing green stuff into which the chicks can be turned 
as they develop. In addition, we use the brooder yards 
for growing green stuff (barley) for use during the fall 
and winter months when alfalfa is not available. If we 
had no such space available we should have to allow 
more space elsewhere; and under this plan we have the 
benefit of the fertilizer already in place. 

The Cockerel House 

The cockerel house is 9x50 feet, shed roof, 5 feet high 
in back and 7 feet in front. The upper 30 inches of the 
front is open, covered with 1^-inch wire netting, pro- 
tected with a canvas awning. The awning is made in 
10-foot sections, 1x2 stuff being used for the frame. The 
canvas is fastened to the frame with broad-headed roofing 
nails. The awning is fastened to the plate with three 
5-inch strap hinges; the end of the hinge projecting be- 
yond the plate is bent back against the plate on the in- 
side, which makes it more rigid. Two quartering braces 



! 



WITH 4200 HENS 49 

are used on the lower end of the frame, made of J/2x3- 
inch redwood. This awning can be used to close the 
house fairly tight when the cockerels are first taken out 
of the brooder houses; later it is kept half open by prop- 
ping it. 

The house is divided into five compartments, each 
9x10 feet. A slide door, 12x18 inches, opens from each 
compartment into the yards ; and 3x6-foot doors, hinged 
toward the back wall, afford passage into the house and 
from one compartment to another. We find this arrange- 
ment preferable to having large doors opening directly 
into each yard from the several compartments. The out- 
side door is outside the yard — this avoids opening a gate 
for entrance to the house. The roosts are of lx2-inch 
stuff set 8 inches apart, 12 inches above the floor. These 
roosts are not hinged. They are nailed to 3 cross pieces 
under which blocks of 2x3-inch stufif are spiked. In clean- 
ing the house the roosts are tilted back against the wall. 

The yards are each 10x16 feet with a gate in the end 
of each section. A 10-inch base board is used, above 
which is an 18-inch strip of 1^-inch wire netting and 
above this is a 6-foot strip of 2-inch netting. Beyond the 
sectional yards is a larger yard, about 50x50 feet, for use 
when cockerels for breeding purposes are matured in the 
cockerel house. On this yard 6-foot netting of 2-inch 
mesh is used. Running water is had in each sectional 
yard, a 4-inch crock being used. 

The frame of the house rests on a concrete wall 6 
inches high. The floor is of tongue and groove stuff, 
driven up tight and topnailed. The flooring runs cross- 
wise of the house, making it easier to clean. 






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WITH 4200 HENS 51 

Laying Houses 

The laying' houses are an adaptation of the Corning 
house, 16x150 feet, shed roof, 6 feet high in back, 8 feet 
5 inches in front. A concrete wall is used on the back 
and on both ends, but not in front. The height of it is 
governed by the slope of the land as suggested in the 
chapter devoted to "Planning the Plant/' The floor is of 
3-inch concrete, medium rough finish, with a slope of 2 
inches toward the front. The reason for this slope and 
also for the absence of a wall in front is that the house 
can be washed out with a hose when it is desired to 
cleanse it thoroughly. The front sill is raised 1 inch 
above the concrete floor by inserting blocks under the 
sill where the studs strike. One-half by 8-inch bolts are 
set in the concrete both in the back wall and in the front 
edge of the floor where the sill will rest. This fastens 
the structure firmly in place. We use 2x3-inch stuff for 
the sills, girth, plates, studs, and drop-board joist, and 
2x6 inches for the rafters which are 18 feet long with a 
6-inch eave in front and 12-inch in back. The wall 
sheathing may be tongue and groove stuff or board and 
batten, whichever is the cheapest. But sound lumber 
should be used to avoid cracks. The girth (for the back 
wall) is set 30 inches above the concrete floor, regardless 
of where the sill strikes. This is done so that it may be 
used for the rear joist of the drop board. 

A ventilator is set in the center of each 16 and 18-foot 
compartment, in the back wall, under the dropboards. 
They are 10x24 inches, covered with 2-inch netting, and 
should have a slide or hinged door. These ventilators 
are opened when the first hot weather comes on and re- 



52 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR 

main open until late in the fall. Should a cool spell set 
in in the meantime they are closed temporarily. 

The dropboard is 7 feet wide, of tongue and groove 
stuff, driven up tight and nailed side and top. Two joists 
are used in addition to the rear girth. The front joist is 
set back 3 inches so that a wheelbarrow can be run under 
the dropboard at cleaning time. The top of the joists are 
kept at 30 inches above the floor level, giving the drop- 
board the same slope as the floor. The dropboard is put 
on crosswise of the building, in 7-foot lengths, for ease 
in cleaning. A moulding, made of lxl-inch stuff cut 
diagonal, is nailed in the corner where the dropboard and 
the rear wall meet; this prevents accumulation of drop- 
pings in the corner. 

Six roosts are used, running lengthwise of the building. 
They are made of 2x2-inch stuff, toe-nailed on two sides 
to 2x3-6 crossbars, all of it dressed on four sides with 
the upper edge of the roosts proper rounded at the mill. 
The first roost is set 8 inches from the rear wall, the bal- 
ance at 13 and 12-inch intervals. Four crossbars are used 
in each section and the roosts are made in 8 and 9-foot 
lengths, according to the length of the section. The 
roosts are hinged to the rear wall with 6-inch strap 
hinges ; the top is 8 inches above the dropboard. A block 
2x3 inches, set under each crossbar 12 inches from the 
forward end, forms the front support. 

The house is divided into three compartments of 50 
feet each. A description of one compartment will serve 
for the entire house : Each compartment is divided into 
three sections, two of 16 feet and one of 18 feet. The 
compartment partitions extend across the whole house; 



WITH 4200 HENS 53 

the section partitions are 9 feet wide, extending 2 feet 
beyond the width of the dropboards. All partitions are 
made of tongue and groove stuff, nailed both side and 
top. The sills are of 2x3-16, extending from the rear 
wall to the front sill. The rafters are used for plates. A 
2x3-inch girth is set at center between the rafter and sill, 
sloping with the rafter. 

The compartment doors as well as the outside doors* 
one in each end of the building, are 42x72 inches. 
The compartment doors are hinged toward the front — 
they swing toward the nests. This is to avoid hens fly- 
ing from the nests through the door when it is opened 
suddenly. The compartment doors are 6 inches short of 
the floor and a 6-inch board, set in grooves, fills the space. 
This obviates the doors being blocked by litter ; the pur- 
pose of setting the board in grooves is to enable its being 
removed when the wheelbarrow or cart is taken through 
at cleaning time. 

All doors and gates on the place are equipped with 
Gonrad Gate Latches, one of the greatest conveniences 
we have on the place. 

The front of the house involves a tedious description 
and if that description is given in crude terms it is be- 
cause it is intended for non-technical understanding. 

We already have the 2x3 sill resting on 1-inch blocks, 
bolted to the concrete. The studs are 8 feet long. They 
are set at intervals of 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 22, 26, 28, 32, 3b, 
40, 44, 48 and 50 feet. 'The purpose of the odd setting 
is to make place tor the irame ot the water shed which 
will be described later and of the partition* already de- 
scribed. The 2x3-inch plate gives us the total height of 



WITH 4200 HENS 55 

8 feet 5 inches. A lx6-inch board is nailed on the out- 
side of the studs, flush with the bottom of the sill. This 
leaves the 1-inch opening below the sill clear. A lath is 
tacked on the inside of the sill to cover this opening. 
The 1x6 is notched at each stud deep enough and wide 
enough to insert a piece of 1x3 crosswise of the stud, set 
on edge. This crosspiece is 29 inches long. It extends 
6 inches inside the house (3 inches past the stud), and is 
nailed flat against the stud. It must be set level. The 
trough rests on these crossbars, on the outside of the 
house. A piece of 1x8 follows, for the trough step. This 
is laid flat along the projecting end of the crossbars, 
inside the house, and is notched to pass the studs, the 
notches being made deep enough so that the board will 
extend 2 inches beyond the studs, outside the house. It 
is nailed to the crossbars and also into the top of the 1x6 
below it. The reason for extending it outside the house is 
to avoid dirt and refuse, which lodges on the trough 
cover, falling into the trough when the cover is tilted. 
A 15-inch opening is left above the 1x8 trough step for 
the trough. Two pieces of 1x6, or one 1x12, is next nailed 
to the studs. Above these an opening of 3 inches is left. 
This is to allow free play for the trough cover. Above 
this opening a weather strip is used. This is made of a 
2x6, preferably pine, bevelled on both edges to a depth 
of 2 inches, leaving it 4 inches wide on each side. The 
upper bevel turns the rain and the lower allows the 
trough cover to slip under it, making the cover rain proof, 
i he reason for using pine for this strip is to make a secure 
tastenmg tor tne hinges ot the cover — screws will not 
hold lor any lengtii ot time in redwood, especially it the 



56 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR 

hinge is in constant use. Above the weather strip either 
siding or tongue and groove stuff may be used. If siding 
is used it will be necessary to add a short false stud be- 
tween each stud; if tongue and groove stuff, a top and 
bottom girth must be run from stud to stud. We have 
both in use. We use 1x3 for the girths, and also for the 
false studs. The upper 30 inches is left open and is cov- 
ered with 2-inch mesh netting. An awning is used over 
this opening, the details of which may be found in the 
description of the cockerel house. The awning is held 
open at all times, excepting when young pullets are first 
put in the laying house, by means of a wire nailed to the 
end of the rafter, wrapped 'round a nail driven into the 
lower edge of the awning frame, and pulled tight to a 
nail driven into a stud above the trough cover. Three 
wires are used on each awning. This holds it absolutely 
rigid. 

The rafters, of 2x6-18, are set at 4-foot intervals with 
an extra one over the 50-foot stud, and are notched front 
and back. The cantboard is of 1x6 — preferably of red- 
wood. To make the joint absolutely tight we put in the 
cantboards when the rafters are set. The first rafter is 
nailed in place. The cantboard is cut to proper length 
and is set on top' of the plate, flush with the inside of it. 
(This avoids a dust-box on top the plate.) The next 
rafter is set against it and spike-toe-nailed into the plate, 
against the cantboard. When a section is completed the 
projection of the cantboard is planed smooth with the 
rafters and the roof sheathing is nailed to it. 

The roof sheathing is of 1x6; we prefer 12 and 16-foot 
lengths, to which there is no waste if the rafters are set 



WITH 4200 HENS 57 

as directed. Two or 3-ply composition roofing is used 
with a layer of tarred felt under the roofing to protect it 
against the spraying materials. Both the felt and the 
roofing is run lengthwise of the building. A 1x6 cornice 
board is run along the front edge of the rafters. 

Water Shed 

The water shed is 5x8 feet, extending outward from 
the main building between studs at 20-28 feet. The floor 
is of concrete and two bolts are set in the outer edge of 
the concrete 18 inches from each outer end to make the 
front rigid; 2x3 sills are used, 1x3 girths, and three 2x3-6 
rafters, the rafters being used for the side plates. A piece 
of 1x3-8 is nailed crosswise of studs 20-28 to support the 
upper end of the rafters. Four studs, 2x3-6 are used in 
front, set at 0, 2, 6 and 8 feet, capped with a 2x3-8 plate 
on which the lower end of the rafters rests. Two doors 
are swung between studs 2-6, opening outward, an old 
fashioned bar and socket barn door fastener being used on 
the outside to hold the doors closed. The entire front 
of the water shed, doors and all, is but 5 feet high, leav- 
ing an opening of 12 inches, to admit light and air, which 
is covered with 2-inch mesh netting. To catch the wire, 
the outer boards on each of the doors is left 6 feet 
long. Two sliding doors, 18x24 inches are used in the 
sides of the shed close to the front edge. The purpose of 
these smaller openings is to allow the front doors to be 
kept closed during hot weather, shading the water pots. 
The sheathing may be either of siding or of tongue and 
groove stuff. 

No door is used between the water shed and the mam 
building, but a piece of 1x8 is nailed flat against the studs, 



58 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR 

flush with the studs at the bottom, to keep the litter out 
of the water shed. Two water pots are used in each water 
shed, placed near the front edge. The supply pipe runs 
along the front of the house and a connection is run into 
the water shed, dividing at the door and one branch run- 
ning to each side of the shed. We use the "Float Boy" 
water valves, which are self-acting. 

Mash Troughs 

The mash troughs extend from each end of the build- 
ing to the water shed and are made in four sections, two 
of 10 feet each on one side of the water shed and one ol 
10 and one of 12 feet on the other. A 12-inch board is 
used for the bottom. A piece of ^x7 is nailed on each 
side, giving a depth of 6 inches inside the trough. The 
opening is Z 1 /^ inches. Above this a strip of y 2 x3 is 
used. The crossbars, one at each end and one in the 
center, are made of 1-inch stuff, 2 feet long, sloping 
from the upper edge of the top bar to the top. The end 
cross bars should be nailed to the side of the base board — 
not on top of it. This makes it rain proof. 

This trough is 13 inches wide if the specifications are 
followed. It is set on the 1x3 cross bars and when it is 
in place a 1x8 board is set close against it, nailed to the 
cross bars, and forms the outside step. The cover is made 
of j^-inch stuff, 24 inches wide, nailed to five cleats of 
1x3-2. The upper end of the cleats are bevelled to allow 
the cover to fit snugly against the studs. One-ply com- 
position roofing is used over the cover, fastened to place 
with laths nailed down into each cleat, three 6-inch 
strap hinges are used on each section ot cover, fastened 
with lJ/2-inch screws. The hinges are set 1 inch from 



WITH 4200 HENS 59 

the upper edge of the cover, to allow the cover to slide 
into place under the weather strip. If the weather strip 
has been correctly set the cover will rest on the slope of 
the trough sides and will open and close readily. To hold 
the cover open while filling the trough a wire is nailed to 
the stud nearest a cover cleat, with a loop on the end of it 
A nail is driven into the side of the cleat (inside the cover) 
and the wire loop is slipped over it. (See page 120.) 

Before the troughs are set in place the nest brackets 
are put on. These brackets hold the trough cross bars 
rigid. One is used at each stud. They are made of 1x6 
redwood. The horizontal bar is 17 inches long and the 
top of it is 30 inches above the concrete floor. It must be 
set level. The support extends from the outer upper edge 
of the horizontal bar slanting downward to the stud and 
is cut to rest over the inside trough step. When this 
bracket is in place properly set and securely nailed you 
can stand on the trough and it will not sag. 

Nests 
The nests are made in 4 sections, three of 12 feet and 
one of 10, extending along the entire front of the house 
(inside) excepting for the 4-foot entry into the water 
shed. They rest on the brackets just described and their 
weight holds them in place. The bottom board is ot 
1x12 sturf, the back of ^xl2 and the top consists of one 
piece of y 2 x6 and another of 3/2x8; this allows a slight 
overhang in tront. The front is of 1x6, nailed flush with 
the bottom of the 1x12 board, making the depth inside 
(m front) 5 inches. The bacK piece is naued in tlie center 
of the bottom board which leaves a slight opening at the 
top. This makes the nest cooler than it would be if 



60 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR 

closed solid. The partition pieces are o£ 1x12 cut into 
lengths just a trifle short of one foot each. They are set 
at intervals to make one compartment to each running 
foot. 

The running board or step, which is used also to 
close the nests at night, is made of 1x3 stuff, the length 
of the section. About 18 inches from each end a 6-inch 
piece of 1x3 is nailed to the running board on what will 
be the outside of it when the nest is closed. To put it 
another way, put the cleats on the ground with the run- 
ning board on top of them; the hinges can then be put 
on in their proper position. A 3-inch strap hinge should 
be used. Fasten the hinge to the cleat, "upside down" ; 
instead of having the screws run down into the slot, 
which brings the screwheads flush with the surface of 
the hinge lay the hinge face downward, which leaves 
the screwheads exposed. The completed nest ready for 
the running board is most conveniently set on the ground 
with the front, the 6-inch board, on top. Place the run- 
ning board on it. It is flush with the 6-inch front board. 
The hinge cleats will fit flat against the 6-inch board, 
and the lower section of the hinge will also lie flat, with 
the screw-grooves up. A 2-inch space is left between the 
6-inch front board and the 3-inch running board; this 
leaves the cleats extending downward 1 inch from the 
top of the 6-inch front board. This is the closed position. 
A notched latchet, made of wood, is fastened to the cen- 
ter partition board, patterned so that it will raise and 
lower readily. The notch should be deep enough so that 
the step is not likely to be jarred loose when hens lly 



WITH 4200 HENS 61 

The final part is three supports to hold the running 
board in the open position. These should be six inches 
long, one near each end and one in the center. To 
get their proper position hold the running board squarely 
at right angles to the nestbox (the hinges must first be 
fastened to the 6-inch front board) and toe-nail the three 
supports in place so that the running board drops on 
them evenly. This is the best combination running board 
and nest-closing arrangement the writer has ever seen. 
It is the idea, one among many in use on our places, ot 
the writer's father-in-law, Mr. W. C. Freeman. 

Above the nest is a protector, designed to prevent the 
hens roosting over the nests. This is made of 3 pieces 
of ^2x6 stuff, nailed to 5 cleats, of proper length to cover 
each section of nest boxes. The lower edge of it rests 
on the slight projection of the top of the nest and the 
upper edge lies against the studs. It is nailed to the studs 
but not necessarily at the bottom. The nest boxes can 
be lifted out at cleaning time if desired. An open space 
is left between the studs which provides a meager foot- 
ing for the more ambitious young pullets, but we seldom 
if ever find one staying there all night; the position is 
too uncomfortable. 

Broody Coop 

A broody coop is put in each compartment, under the 
dropboard, and covers one-half the center section. The 
bottom support or sill is made of one 1x6-7 and one 
1x6-8, standing on edge and nailed together at right 
angles. 

The outer edge of the front drop board joist serves for 
the front plate and a strip of 1x3-7 is nailed to the joist 



62 HOW 1 MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR 

legs, flush with the 1x6 at the bottom. The space between 
should be covered with lath, set 2y 2 inches apart. We 
used 2-inch mesh netting but the hens eventually break 
through. A little door is put in the front section. The 
coop is placed in the center section to have it close to the 
water supply. We use two gallon galvanized cans (spe- 
cially built) with a pan soldered on the front edge, oper- 
ating on the cup and saucer fountain principle, and with 
a screwcap filler opening on the bottom. It is provided 
with a swinging handle on top, by means of which it can 
be hung at a proper height from a nail in the wall. We 
use two roosts in the broody coops. 

Yards 

The yards run the length of the house (150 feet), and 
are 100 feet deep. A partition fence is run through at 
50-foot intervals, conforming to the inside sections of 
the house. The fences are fastened to the southeast 
and southwest corners of the house, leaving the out- 
side doors of the houses clear. The fences are built of 
3x4-10 redwood posts, 1x10 redwood for baseboards, and 
2-inch poultry netting 6 feet high. The posts are given 
two coats of half creosote and half crude oil to a depth 
of 36 inches and are set 30 inches in the ground. The 
sideline posts are set, the first one 8^ feet from the house 
with another at 12 feet, forming the gateway; the next 
at 20 feet, and thereafter at 16-foot intervals. The ends 
are set in two intervals of 16 feet and one of 18, excepting 
for the upper yards in which a 3^-foot gateway setting- 
is made in the 18-foot section. These post intervals are 
most economical of baseboard material and have been 



WITH 4200 HENS 63 

found satisfactory. Braces of 2x3-7 redwood are used, 
which should have the steepest possible pitch to obviate 
birds climbing them. No top boards are used. 

The gates are built with the upper crossbar 18 inches 
below the top of the wire. All gates swing inward, the 
upper ones (nearest the house) toward the house rather 
than away from it. 

Hospital, Observation and Cull Houses 

We have several small houses, with appropriate yards, 
used for hospital, observation, and culling purposes. All 
of these are made up of odd buildings accumulated dur- 
ing our earlier experience on a leased place. Such spare 
quarters are not only a great convenience but an absolute 
necessity on a plant of any size. The construction of 
the buildings and their size is of no importance. We 
make a special point, however, of providing not only 
tight, comfortable sleeping 'quarters in all such places but 
in addition ample shade and shelter and water faucets 
are provided in each. 

In the hospital section at least two divisions should be 
available, a small one in which sick birds are first isolated 
and a larger one for what we call the convalescents. The 
isolation yard on our place is surrounded with a solid 
board fence about 3 feet high, with 5 feet of netting above 
it. The house is but 4 feet deep and has a dropboard 2 
feet above the floor; but roosting quarters are provided 
on the floor as well as on the dropboard. Fresh straw 
is put into these quarters after each cleaning and the 
houses are always sprayed when cleaned. 



64 HOW 1 MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR 

The Feed House 

The details of the feed house are hardly of importance. 
This may be built according to taste and purse. Our 
building is 16x40 feet, of which 16x20 is used for feed 
storage. The floor is of concrete. Our close proximity 
to source of supply makes it unnecessary to carry any 
great quantity in storage. Where this is not the case it 
will be necessary to have greater storage space. It might 
be mentioned, in this connection, that we do not specu- 
late in grains and feedstuffs ; we buy as we need. 

The Egg Room 

The egg room, just completed, may be of interest. It 
is 16x17 feet and rests on a 5-inch wall of concrete. The 
building runs north and south. On the northerly end an 
excavation was made for a shallow cellar the width of 
the building, 36 inches wide and 30 inches deep. The con- 
crete foundation which extends all around the building 
runs to the bottom of the excavation. The floor joists of 
2x4, properly supported, run crosswise. An interval of 

3 feet is allowed over the cellar. The balance of the room 
is floored with tongue and groove flooring. The cellar 
covering is made of flooring in 3-foot lengths made into 

4 trap doors which can be lifted against the north wall 
and held in place by looped wire catches. Filled cases 
are set on the edge of the cellar way and can be easily 
and conveniently lifted down or up. This arrangement 
obviates the drudgery and labor of dragging the eggs up 
and down cellar steps. Anyone who has been through it, 
especially during wet weather, will readily understand 
why we fought shy of the old scheme. 






WITH 4200 HENS 65 

The cellar is used exclusively for hatching eggs. We 
can store 30 cases in it without crowding. Two venti- 
lators are set in the foundation, one in the south end, the 
other in the west side 5 feet south of the cellar. They 
are covered with 1-inch mesh netting. 

The building is set on sloping ground. The main 
entry is a 3-foot door on the west side, just south of the 
cellar. One step leads up to the floor. On the south 
side the floor is 2 feet above the driveway. A 3-foot door 
was put in the southwest corner. The delivery truck 
can back to this doorway and the eggs can be loaded 
onto the truckbed with but little lifting. 

Cost of Buildings 

It would serve no purpose, under present prevailing 
conditions, to record the cost of our buildings. Prices of 
materials have advanced to such an extent that no com- 
parison can be made. The last of our laying houses was 
built in the fall of 1917. The 150-foot house and fences 
complete cost $620 (in round figures) for materials alone ; 
the labor cost cannot be given for any of the buildings 
because the writer did a very large share of it himself. 

Our total investment in buildings and accessories, in- 
cluding water lines, fences, etc., is $3,500 in round figures. 
This is entirely exclusive of labor; it covers materials 
alone. The amount paid out for labor in construction of 
the plant would not exceed the labor cost in building one 
of the large laying houses. 

An idea of the size of the plant may be obtained from 
the fact that we have more than 10,000 square feet of 
concrete floors and about 13,000 square feet of composi- 
tion roofing on the place. 



PART FOUR 

A detailed description of the methods followed on The 
Tumbach Egg Farm. 

And this is 
How I Made $10,000 in One Tear with 4200 Hens" 

Hatching 

All of our hatching is done at a commercial hatchery, 
the eggs being supplied by us from our own stock. This 
course was adopted after several years of experience m 
doing our own hatching. Much may be said in favor of 
either system but the arguments would leave us where 
we started ; that is, that we leave the hatching to the man 
who makes hatching his business. When brooding time 
comes, bringing with it thousands of chicks, we have 
nothing on our minds but the care of those chicks. 

The eggs are marked with a rubber-stamp to avoid any 
possible confusion. It then becomes a matter simply of 
the honesty of the hatcher as to whether or not we get 
the chicks from our own eggs. 

We pay the hatcher so much per thousand eggs, re- 
gardless of the number of chicks hatched. 

We usually provide 6 cases (2160 eggs) for each hatch 
and we count on about 1500 chicks from this number. 
In a year of poor hatches we are likely to fall short and 
in good years we run over that number. The long haul 
in a truck — our eggs are carried 25 miles — reduces the 
hatchability of the eggs of course ; this has been taken 
into consideration. The hatcher calls for the eggs at our 
place and delivers the chicks. In both respects he is 
better equipped and more experienced as to the safest 
method of carrying than we are or could be. 



WITH 4200 HENS , 67 

Carrying Baby Chicks 

To those who carry their own chicks a word of advice 
might be in order : The chicks must have air and warmth. 
If you are stacking up a lot of the familiar 100-chick 
carrying boxes in a motor car be sure the boxes are criss- 
crossed in such a way that each box will have air. The 
boxes should set level, otherwise the chicks will be 
jammed to the lower section of the box. If necessary 
place strips of wood between the boxes. As to warmth, 
the chicks will supply all they need for the trip, but this 
will not protect them against the draft made by the 
moving car. Excepting in hot weather it will be neces- 
sary to put a blanket over the load to keep off the draft, 
and even in hot weather a curtain of some kind should 
be hung in such a way as to stop the draft. It should 
be kept in mind that newly hatched chicks differ in no 
essential respect from a very young baby so far as sus- 
ceptibility to draft is concerned, and the writer's observa- 
tion is that a careful mother who carries the baby in a 
motor car quite generally has it completely covered. 

Should you meet with an accident on the road or if it 
is necessary to stop for as long as 10 minutes you should 
remove the blanketing — the draft stops with the car. We 
heard of an instance where a poultryman carrying a load 
of one thousand or twelve hundred chicks was delayed 
half an hour. He forgot to remove his blankets ; and he 
smothered more than half of the chicks. On the other 
hand we have known of many cases where chicks were 
chilled by the draft and a heavy mortality was the re- 
sult, which was of course blamed on the hatcher and the 
stock he hatched from. 



68 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR 

We are extremely careful with newly hatched chicks. 
If it becomes necessary to transfer some from one house 
to another we either use one of the cardboard chick boxes 
on which the lid can be set down tight, or else, if an open 
box is used, we put a gunny sack or a piece of flannel 
over the chicks before going outdoors. This may seem 
"fussy" ; it must be remembered that your care of these 
chicks will make or mar your whole year. 

If your chicks are shipped to you by express, learn the 
exact time when the train is due and be there to meet it. 
Do not chance a careless expressman setting them out- 
doors in the rain or snow and wind ; or a careful one put- 
ting them next to the stove. Either course may cause 
you not only loss but a lot of misery and trouble. 

Selecting Eggs for Hatching 

We use no egg for hatching that weighs less than 2 
ounces and we discard exceptionally large eggs also. 
The egg must be of normal shape, and must have a per- 
fect shell. "Pimples" of lime in the shell ; shells with 
ridges and water-marks ; shells that clink like glass on 
being tapped with the fingernail — all these are discarded , 
likewise, of course, any that are checked — by which is 
meant a crack in the shell which may or may not be a 
complete fracture. 

We take no chances of mixing hatching eggs with 
the general run — the buckets are marked with a card 
as they are brought to the eggroom, and the eggs dis- 
carded from the hatching eggs are never packed for mar- 
ket directly; they are put into a bucket and are graded 
and packed out of the bucket. With our years of experi- 



i 



J 



WITH 4200 HENS 69 

ence in packing we still deem it unsafe to try making the 
double grading in one operation. Should the cases be- 
come mixed the cost would be too great — especially if 
the eggs are sold. 

Time of Hatching 

Our first brood of chicks is brought off the second or 
third week in January and we have either two or three 
lots in that month, one week apart. These are followed 
by three lots in the month of March, also one week apart. 
This arrangement allows for keeping the first hatches in 
the brooder house a maximum of 8 weeks should a streak 
of bad weather be encountered. This leeway of time has 
saved us a great many chicks that would otherwise have 
been forced out of the brooder houses to make way for 
another lot regardless of extremely adverse weather. It 
was to avoid being so forced that we used three brooder 
houses earlier in our poultry career when we brooded 
only three lots in one season. Most poultrymen would 
agree with us, we think, that the greatest single factor 
in chick mortality is lack of proper housing facilities. 
It has come to be a common thing to hear, "I lost 
a lot of young pullets in my early hatches ; I had to put 
them in colony houses to make way for another hatch 
coming off." 

Foreword on Brooding 

The description of our brooding methods will be em- 
bellished to an extent which to those of experience may 
seem even absurd. It is the writer's purpose to give 
herewith a definite line of procedure for a novice to fol- 
low; as he expressed it in an outline, 4 T would have the 
chicks arrive and make him feel at home with them, not 



70 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR 

like a hopeless idiot. I would take him along, day by day, 
morning, noon and night, knowing just what to do at 
each stage of the game." When this novice has gradu- 
ated he can do his own eliminating of non-essential fea- 
tures and make such changes as will best fit his own 
particular case and habits. But at the start, assuming 
that he knows nothing whatever about handling the 
chicks, we purpose giving him something to go on. 

Getting Ready for the Chicks 

The chicks are delivered to us 36 to 48 hours out of the 
incubators at which time they are ready for their first feed 
and water. 

About one week before the chicks are due the brooder 
house is in order. If it is a new one it has been 
thoroughly sprayed ; if an old one it has been cleaned, 
washed out with a hose and nozzle, allowed to dry and 
then sprayed. If clean sand, reasonably free from dust 
and dirt, is available, the floor is covered with it to a 
depth of about one inch. A light scattering of clean, 
bright straw, preferably wheat straw, is put over this ; if 
barley straw must be used it is put through the feed chop- 
per and cut into one inch lengths. If clean sand is not 
to be had none is used and the straw is made about two 
inches deep. 

The stove is started up and tested out thoroughly, run- 
ning several days if necessary to get the proper adjust- 
ment and to be sure it is working properly. The auto- 
matic alarm system is gone over and put in working 
position, the thermostat hanging by its wires (from a 
rafter) 12 inches above the floor, 3 feet from the stove 



WITH 4200 HENS 71 

and facing it. A thermometer, known to be registering 
accurately, is hung from the bottom of the alarm-thermo- 
stat, also facing the stove, the bulb hanging about 2 
inches above the straw. The inlet air shaft is opened 
about one inch and the outlet shaft about three inches 
on the bottom slide, the upper slide being kept closed. 
The heat is run up to 95 degrees. The alarm is set to 
ring the bell if the heat drops to 90 degrees (this is 
brought about by shutting off the stove), or if the heat 
rises to 100 degrees. Under ordinary w r eather conditions 
the space between either the hot or the cold contact points 
will be about the thickness of a worn dime ; but nothing 
short of experimenting will determine the exact setting. 

The house is allowed to warm up gradually rather than 
by forcing the stove. As already said, it may be neces- 
sary to extend the warming-up and testing out experi- 
ments over a period of several days. When the proper 
adjustments have been reached the stove is shut off until 
the day before the chicks are due to arrive. On the morn- 
ing of that day it is started up again; and it continues 
running from that time on.' The burner is cleaned and 
scraped some time during the morning of the day the 
chicks are to arrive so that it will not need attention just 
after the chicks are in the room. 

A ring of 1-inch mesh netting, 12 inches highj about 
14 feet m diameter, covered with muslin, is set around 
the stove. This is to keep the chicks Irom straying. The 
muslin is fastened to the netting at the top by stitching 
thread, and is on tlie inside of the netting. It must be 
fastened in place with the netting set in the form of a 
circle; if the netting is laid flat the muslin will bulge and 



72 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR 

the chicks will crawl under it and bunch up between it 
and the netting and many of them will squeeze through 
•the wire. The ring should rest on the flooring, the straw 
being banked against it. 

Tar paper is cut into strips 2x3 feet, about 8 being 
used for 1500 chicks. These strips are put down inside 
the circle. A light scattering of chick grit is thrown over 
them, likewise a light scattering of hulled oats, cracked 
wheat and fine cracked corn (equal parts by weight). 
About an hour before the chicks are due the little cup and 
saucer chick fountains are filled \yith water from which 
the chill has been taken. We use one fountain to 100 
chicks. These are scattered promiscuously inside the 
circle, some of them very close to the stove, others on 
the tar paper. Tilt the "cup" slightly for an instant so 
the water will come up to the very edge of the "saucer." 

Then we are ready for the little newcomers. 

And if you purpose following our plan jn caring for 
chicks, take this much advice : Work all night if you 
have to; but have that brooder house absolutely ready 
for your chicks at least 24 hours before they are due 
to arrive. We have heard of cases where the delivery- 
man from the hatchery had to assist in putting up the 
brooder stove intended to warm the chicks he brought 
in the month of January. From the writer's point of 
view this is little short of criminal ; true enough, he 
views it from a prejudiced standpoint, the standpoint 
of one who really loves the birds and especially baby 
chicks. But almost any human being wortliy the name 
would resent the idea of chucking a lot of helpless fluii 
balls, just out of a temperature of at least 103 into a damp, 






WITH 4200 HENS 73 

cold house, and certainly no one has the right to expect 
them to do well in such hands. 

Method of Brooding 

All available help is called into action when a load of 
chicks arrives and they are unloaded as quickly as pos- 
sible. The first boxes are carried to the farther side of 
the room. They are set on the outside of the wire circle, 
half of them on each end of the house. They are not 
piled up. On a hot day the lids are taken off the boxes 
as they are set down. If the sun is bright and strong 
the curtains are dropped over the windows to keep the 
chicks from crowding toward the strong light. 

Set a box close to the circle, sidewise, kneel down by 
the side of it and lift the chicks over the wire in bunches 
of five. Dip right into them with both hands. Have a 
pencil handy, and when you have emptied a box, mark on 
the lid of it the number of chicks you counted out. If 
dead ones are found toss them aside into one pile and 
count the dead when the live ones are all out. Don't 
drop the little chaps if you can help it — some men can 
handle them in what appears a rough manner without 
hurting them but this comes from long experience. 

Move as rapidly as you can and don't mind the chirp- 
ing; you will grow accustomed to it. They will "chup'' 
quite a bit for a day or two until they have settled down. 
Aieantime you will be surprised to see many of them 
drinking and eating before you get the last box emptied. 
The idea of tilting the fountain is to bring the water to 
the very edge so that when a little bill is laid to it the 
moisture is found at once. You want to get them started 



74 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR 

in the shortest possible time and you are doing everything 
you can to make it easy for them. 

If you had things arranged as outlined you now have 
nothing to do but pile up the boxes and remove them. 
In doing this we always look through them carefully to 
be sure no chicks are overlooked. Next you should tack 
a large card on the wall of the brooder house, near the 
door, with a lead pencil hung over it by a string. On 
this card mark the date and number of chicks received, 
and as losses occur, mark them down. If you wish to 
learn the periods of heaviest mortality, mark off squares 
on the card and put each day's losses in a square. You 
will find such a record both interesting and instructive. 
We make no distinction between chicks found dead and 
those that we help out of the way. 

And then you can sit down and "size them up." The 
chicks themselves will tell you in a short time whether 
or not your temperature and ventilation are right. Dif- 
ferent lots require different degrees of heat and outside 
atmospheric conditions will necessitate a variation in the 
supply of air admitted. If it happens to be a very hot 
day you may have to lower your heat and increase the 
air supply immediately. In such case the chicks will 
pant for breath, some of them racing about, others 
"chupping" madly. If this continues for as much as say 
five minutes, open your inlet air slide to full capacity 
and open the upper outlet slide about half way; then 
turn down the regulating screw on the stove, giving it 
two or three full-round turns. This will reduce the heat 
and increase the fresh air in a very short time. 

Give the chicks a chance to settle down in the new 



WITH 4200 HENS 75 

atmosphere before making further radical changes. If 
they quiet down and begin to take an interest in water 
and feed, close the upper outlet shaft slide and increase 
the opening in the lower one. Then leave them to 
themselves. 

On the other hand, if they crowd each other and pack 
together, even right under the hood of the stove, run up 
the temperature by turning up the regulator screw; but 
do this slowly. Turn it a quarter ways around, leave it 
for a few minutes, until you hear the buzzing of the 
flame, then turn it a little further, and so on, until you 
have raised the temperature two or three degrees. Then 
leave it at that for half an hour or so; and if, after that 
length of time they are still crowding the stove, repeat 
the operation, and continue doing so until they scat- 
ter and take to the water and feed. 

Meantime some of them may show an inclination to 
peck one another's toes ; this is not serious at this age. If 
you wish to take no chances of their getting started on a 
rampage of toe-picking, catch the chaps that do it and give 
them a drink. Hold the little fellow between your thumb 
and middle finger, leaving the index finger free. Take him 
to a fountain, and with the index finger "duck" his head to 
the w^ater. Don't hold his head down very long — he must 
raise his head to get the water where he wants it. Then 
remove one fountain from the ring, tear off an edge of 
tar paper, put a little feed on it, and set your toe-peck- 
ing chap outside the ring with this feed and water to 
amuse him. Don't forget him, though, and step on him 
later on or leave him out all night. 

Chances are that in an hour or so they will have 



76 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR 

cleaned up your feed and are acting like old stagers. If 
so, give them another light scattering. You want to get 
them all to eating and drinking as fast as ever you can. 
Some of them will still stand around and "chup," and 
will go to sleep that way, without taking feed or water 
the first day. They will cry at intervals throughout the 
night. If you are patient and wish to bother with it, find 
the owner of the voice you hear and give him a drink. 
The writer has gotten out of bed many a time because 
he could not stand the crying voices and after making 
a few chaps happy with a drink has in all probability 
not only saved chicks from starvation but made his own 
night more comfortable. This is the "personal element ,, 
we hear so much about in connection with the conduct of 
any line of business, like the storekeeper who goes to 
the store especially to accommodate some good customer. 

Should your chicks arrive in the morning, so that they 
have had their first feed and water before noon, leave 
them until about 2 o'clock ; at that hour give them another 
light scattering of feed and tilt the water fountains again 
so that the water is up to the edge of the saucer. Keep 
the water at as high a level in the saucer as you can 
throughout the day. At 4 o'clock give them another 
feed and at this time replenish the fountains, using water 
from which the chill has been taken (by adding a little 
hot water). The easiest way to refill the fountains is to 
carry in two buckets, one filled with water, the other 
empty. Empty the fountain into the second bucket, then 
dip it into the fresh bucket, fit the saucer over it, reverse 
it, and set it down. You will have to move very cau- 
tiously, "feeling your way" amongst the chicks with your 



WITH 4200 HENS 77 

foot and with your foot pushing aside any that happen 
to be in your way. You will learn this trick quickly. 
While in the ring, and later when you have turned them 
loose in the house, make it a practice to keep your feet 
as close to the floor as you can. 

If you are just starting in the business you will very 
likely have someone coming in to see your new chicks. 
P-ut a sign on the outside of the door reading "Be quiet;" 
and if you take anyone into the brooder house, caution 
them to be quiet. When the chicks are just hatched noises 
will not bother them so much but when they are a few 
days old and thereafter it will be a very harmful influence 
to have someone come up to the house (or into it) and 
clap their hands and shout for joy at the sight. The little 
chaps will drop in their tracks or dash wildly for cover ; 
and anything of the sort will cost you money because 
a sudden nervous shock hurts any tender, nervous organi- 
zation. The more vigorous they are the more nervous 
they will be. This is not so noticeable when they are 
segregated into small lots, but where they are kept in 
swarms as we keep them it stands out boldly. You will 
learn it for yourself but guard against it if you can. 

The 4 o'clock feed is the last for the first day. Leave 
them until 5 (if early in the season), until 6 if later, but 
not until dark. The curtains should be raised before the 4 
o'clock feed if the day is short, so they will have plenty 
of light for the final feed. If the day is longer the cur- 
tains remain down. An hour after the last feed the water 
pots are removed ; set them outside the circle. Then pick 
up the tar paper. Brush off any chicks standing on it 
and put the paper outside the circle. Pile up the differ- 



78 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR 

ent pieces, saving what feed remains on them. Scatter 
this in the litter outside the ring or leave it for the morn- 
ing feed, whichever is easiest for you. It is better not 
to scatter it inside the ring where they will sleep on it. 

Then let the chicks settle down. If after half an hour 
or so, when they have begun to settle, they show an incli- 
nation to crowd toward the stove, increase the heat by 
turning the upper screw of the regulator, but do it slowly. 
You want them to stay at least two feet away from the 
legs of the stove. As darkness comes on they will miss 
their mother. There will be a great deal of crying and 
they will "cuddle" toward one another, trying to "get 
under." You will simply have to grin and bear this. 
They will finally settle down, very close to each other. 
They may favor one side or the other, bunching up ; if 
so, spread them around the stove by pushing a bunch 
along the straw. You may have to take a handful here 
and there and remove it bodily to another section. When 
they are a few days older they will find the right degree 
in the circle ; and very often even the newly hatched 
will spread round the stove in a perfect circle. 

Should the main body crowd the outer edge of the 
wire circle, the temperature is too high and it should be 
reduced by turning down the stove. Only on warm nights 
will it be necessary to increase the air supply by opening 
the inlet shaft more than an inch or so and the outlet shaft 
by three inches (on the bottom slide). You can gauge 
this by your own sensation while in the room. The air 
should be sweet but not cool. And remember that the 
feeling you have while standing upright is no guide — 
your face may feel hot and close but the chicks are far 



WITH 4200 HENS 79 

from the atmosphere you are "tasting." The fresh air 
is on the floor and the greatest heat is near the root — 
you must get down to the level of the chicks before your 
judgment can be taken. If your thermometer reads be- 
tween 90 and 95 and the chicks are settled with the outer 
ones near the thermometer, your heat is about right ; and 
if you do not feel a "stuffiness" in the air when you get 
your face down near the thermometer, your air is about 
right. 

We usually look in on the chicks at about 7 o'clock 
and again just before going to bed. Newly hatched, they 
should now look like a big omelette, close together, many 
with their necks stretched flat along the straw ; but they 
should not be piled three or four deep. If they are so 
piled up and are the proper distance from the stove there 
is too much air. Correct this by reducing the opening 
in the air shafts. Before leaving the house on the last 
round, test the alarm system by pressing the contact 
points together first on one side, then the other. The 
bell in the house should ring each time. 

We leave the curtains down at night for the first few 
nights. Thereafter it is raised after dark. 

Second Day 
On the second day raise the curtains as soon after day- 
light as possible. Put down the tar paper plats, scat- 
tering the grain on them as you go. This will be rather 
a tedious process on this day because they have not yet 
learned that it means "eat." Next day it will go easier. 
When they have had the feed about half an hour put 
in the water pots. Temper the water to the heat of your 
hand and add a level teaspoonful of common baking soda 
to each quart of water. (Use the two-bucket scheme for 



80 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR 

emptying and refilling the pots). This is done to over- 
come possible fermentation in the little crops, as yet un- 
used to "outside" feedstuffs. Leave them with their 
feed and water for about an hour. Then roll up the circle 
and set it aside. If you have the space above the rafter 
braces, make a place for it up there ; otherwise provide a 
bracket of some kind on the wall on which to hang it. 
Don't set it in a corner — it looks like mother to them and 
they are likely to crowd up around it during the day. 

If the day opens bright and clear drop the curtains; if 
it is cloudy leave them up so as to have all light possible. 
Increase the ventilation by opening the air shafts wider — 
at least double the opening used during the night. On 
very warm days you may have to open one or more 
windows toward noon. Keep the air fresh and pure. 
There is no danger of overdoing the ventilation during 
the day — the night is the danger period in this respect. 
You should give them all the air possible during the day. 
Keep the temperature up ; they can get away from the 
heat in the ends of the house. 

Scatter a light feed of the oats, wheat and corn on the 
plats every three hours ; leave the plats in place on the 
second day so that the slower ones may yet have a chance 
to catch on. We make it a point to so regulate the quan- 
tity that there will be a little left on the plats an hour 
after feeding. Empty and refill the water pots at 11 o'clock 
and again at 3, but omit the soda after the first filling; 
and scatter the pots pretty well all over the room. If 
the chicks favor a certain portion of the house, put sev- 
eral pots in the vicinity. Take the chill off the water at 
each filling. 




WITH 4200 HENS 81 

When bed time comes you will have some trouble in 
rounding up the herd on this second night. Fasten one 
end of the wire to the wall near the stove and unrolling 
it as you go, round the little fellows ahead of you. In 
a day or two they will keep well ahead and it will be but 
a few minutes work to put the circle in place. Stay on 
the outside of the circle as you unroll it. You will likely 
have to reduce the temperature a point or two on this 
night to keep them the proper distance from the stove. 
Do not overlook reducing the openings of the airshafts. 
Get them back to the position at which you had them the 
night before. Test the alarm system same as you did 
last night. 

Third Day 

On the third day feed and water early in the morning 
as before; but do not use the soda. Remember to take 
the chill off the water. Leave them in the circle for half 
an hour, then remove the circle and pile up the plats, scat- 
tering the left-over grain (if any) in the litter. 

At 9 or 9:30 on the third day we give them dry bran 
and charcoal. The bran must be absolutely pure and 
sweet — if it tastes bitter we do not use it. To a sack of 
bran (80 or 90 lbs.) we add about 8 pounds of fine char- 
coal. This is fed in little troughs. 

The trough is made of a piece of ^x3, in 4 foot 
lengths, on each side of which is nailed an ordinary lath. 
The end pieces are 3 inches high and a lath is nailed across 
the top from one end piece to the other, with a little sup- 
port in the center of just the right size to keep the top 
piece from sagging. We use one trough to each hundred 
chicks. The troughs are set lengthwise of the house close 



82 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR 

to the end walls, nine of them near the closed end and 
five in the end where the door is. If many chicks are 
working near the stove we transfer one or two troughs 
from each end to the side walls until they have learned 
to follow them. In this as well as in every other respect 
you will note that we go to extra trouble to get the little 
fellows started. 

We find it easier to fill the troughs the first day or 
two near the door and to carry them into place already 
filled. We use five gallon oil cans for feed pails. The top 
is cut out to within an inch of the edge. This one inch 
is turned over, making the top stronger. Heavy wire is 
used for a bale ; we fasten the bale toward one side rather 
than in the center. This makes it convenient to carry 
two pails in one hand which saves steps as two pails full 
of bran can be carried as easily as one. 

The troughs are filled with a small-mouthed scoop or 
a large sized flat stove shovel. Enough bran is put into 
each trough to bring it within half an inch of the top of 
the side pieces. If the trough is filled level full there 
will be too much waste — there will be some in any event, 
especially for the first few days as some of the little fel- 
lows will crawl into almost any sized opening. We 
have found that a trough of the exact dimensions given 
is least wasteful. 

The bran troughs are removed at about 11:30. We 
fasten two brackets to each end wall, not quite four feet 
apart and about two feet wide, and the troughs are set 
on the brackets. The top piece of the trough being flat 
and wide, the troughs will "slack" nicely. The water pots 
are then refilled and the plats are put down, most of them 



WITH 4200 HENS 83 

where the troughs have been but at least two on each 
side of the stove. A liberal scattering of grain is spread 
on them and this remains in place for about half an hour. 
The quantity can be gauged only by experimenting. 
Measure it in scoopfuls and if they leave part of it, reduce 
it next time ; if they clean it up in less time, increase it. 
At the end of half an hour the plats are piled up again 
and the troughs are replaced. If any are empty they are 
refilled ; but they must be cleaned up before more is 
added. 

At 3 o'clock the water is freshened again and the 
troughs are removed. Grain is fed at 4 and the plats 
remain in place until bedtime. If the grain is cleaned up 
entirely within a short time a little more is scattered, but 
it must be cleaned up quickly and completely before this 
is done. The circle is put into place as before, the ventila- 
tion is adjusted and the alarm is tested. 

Fourth Day 
The same routine is followed on the 4th day. At this 
stage it usually becomes necessary to begin reducing the 
temperature. The location of the chicks within the circle 
after they have settled down is the best guide to follow 
in reducing the temperature. It should be done gradu- 
ally, one or two degrees at most. The 7 o'clock inspec- 
tion trip is the best time; then in looking in again just 
before retiring a re-adjustment can be made if necessary. 

Fifth and Sixth Days 
On the fifth day chick mash replaces the bran and 
green stuff is fed at noon in place of the grain. The 
simplest way of handling the chick mash problem is to 




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WITH 4200 HENS 85 

use equal parts of bran and hen mash, with the addition 
of 100 pounds of bone meal to each completed ton, and 
this is not only a simple method but it continues the 
heavy feeding of bran on which we place great reliance. 
The formula of hen mash will be found in the chapter 
devoted to feeding the layers. At this stage we begin 
to weigh the feed with the idea of keeping the chicks on 
half mash and half grain (by weight). A quantity of 
grain is w r eighed into a pail in the morning, likewise a 
quantity of mash into other pails. This is used for the 
day's feeding. In the evening the remainder is weighed 
and the results indicate the course to be followed next 
day. If your memory is not good, mark the results on a 
card fastened to the wall in the feedhouse. 

The chicks will be slow to take the green stuff at first. 
We use the plats, to which they have become accustomed. 
Very little will be needed at first, but in a short time 
they will take to it and then they are given all they will 
eat. The plats can then be omitted. When they have 
learned to eat the greens readily it will not be necessary 
to remove the troughs at noon. They can be left in place 
all day. 

Seventh to Eleventh Days 

On the 7th day the grain is fed in the morning without 
using the plats ; but they are used for the evening feed. 
At this stage it will be necessary to use a higher and 
wider netting for the circle; we use one 2 feet high and 
long enough to make an oval reaching from side to side 
of the house and about 18 feet at the longest point. It 
is covered with muslin like the other. To support the 
wire, cords are fastened to the roof with a hook on the 



86 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR 

end of each. When the wire is unrolled the hooks are 
fastened as they are passed. The ventilation will have to 
be increased; this is done by increasing the openings in 
both inlet and outlet shafts. The chicks are likely now 
to be settling nearer the wire, but this is of no conse- 
quence. 

If the litter is beginning to look bare in spots, add an- 
other inch or two. 

The water pots are now set on little platforms. These 
are made of half inch pieces about one foot square nailed 
to blocks three inches high. They are set close together, 
about five feet from the stove, half on each side of it; 
at the noon filling they are set further back. The water 
is no longer tempered from this time on unless freezing 
weather prevails. The pots, platforms and all, are set 
back still farther when the wire is put up at night and 
when the wire is in place one or two pots are set inside 
of it, close to the stove, for the benefit of any chaps that 
may have overlooked their bed time drink. When the 
last inspection is made at night all of the pots are returned 
to their place inside the wire. This gives them water 
early in the morning, tempered, and at breakfast time 
they will be found busily scratching. 

Twelfth to Twentieth Days 

On the 12th day more straw is added to the litter. Ii 
baled straw is available save out several chunks of it. 
Use these to bank up the corners, stuffing loose straw 
behind them to avoid a nice crawling-in place in which 
you would most likely find several hundred stacked up 
and smothered. 






WITH 4200 HENS 87 

A strip of muslin is now tacked to the rear wall, ex- 
tending to the floor. The wire, instead of forming an 
oval, is used running from one end wall to the other; 
one end is fastened just inside the outlet airshaft, the 
other end on the inlet shaft. It bulges out in the center 
where it goes around the stove. It is upheld by the cords 
and hooks which are changed to conform with the new 
position. The idea is to herd the chicks toward the back 
wall, where the roosts will be. The muslin on the back 
wall is a big help. . It still looks like "mother." The tem- 
perature is increased for the night at this stage as the 
chicks will be farther from the stove. Some lots will re- 
quire a bit of herding when this change is made, but ordi- 
narily they take to it readily enough after one or two 
evenings. 

On the 14th day the roosts are let down in the morning 
before the troughs are put in place; the troughs are set 
in double rows beyond the roosts with one or two on top 
of them, set between the cross bars. This helps to get 
the chicks upstairs. The roosts are raised when the 
evening grain is fed. 

On the 18th day larger troughs are used. These are 
made of ^>x4, 6 feet long, for the bottom, with two pieces 
of ^x2 for the sides, and the top is of 3^>x2, the end 
pieces being 4 inches high. Larger water pots are used 
(4 or 5 quart) and fewer of them. 

Three Weeks and Thereafter 

At 3 weeks the morning grain feed is omitted ana 

sprouted oats are fed at from 9 to 10 o'clock. The oats 

is not allowed to sprout into a matted mass but is used 

when the white roots are about half an inch long. The 



88 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR 

chicks take to this readily. Enough is fed to last them 
about 15 minutes. It is fed in the litter. At this time 
we begin adding coarse grain to the evening feed, mix- 
ing it with the chick grain in gradually increasing quan- 
tities until the chick grain is entirely replaced at about 
7 weeks. 

We use the same grain for the chicks as we do for the 
layers excepting that we never give them barley with 
the hulls on it. 

A pan of medium shell and medium granite grit is also 
given them at this stage and is kept before them con- 
stantly. 

At four weeks the roosts are let down permanently. 
Some time after the evening grain feed has been cleaned 
up, but before the chicks begin to settle down behind the 
wire, we raise the end roosts and kick the straw into the 
corners, building it up to the heighth of the roosts. This 
prevents corner-crowding and is also an encouragement 
toward climbing up on the roosts. 

We usually clean out the brooder house and put in 
fresh straw the day before the roosts are to be lowered 
permanently. 

If warm nights prevail at from 3 to 4 weeks it may be 
necessary to temporarily increase the ventilation when 
the chicks begin to settle down. We do this by opening 
the upper slide of the outlet shaft about an inch. 
It is left open until the 7 o'clock inspection at which 
time, if the night air is cool, it is closed again. 

If the night air is warm it may be necessary to leave a 
slight opening in this upper slide all night. Y ou can tell 
by the chicks whether or not it is necessary. Il they are 






WITH 4200 HENS 89 

lying close together in the straw, (such as are not on 
the roosts), or if those that climbed up have dropped off, 
the upper slide may remain closed. 

If they are uncomfortably warm they will lie far apart, 
some with open mouths. It seldom happens that tlie 
upper slide must be left open all night (at this stage) 
with early hatches; the March hatches may require it. 
We have even found it necessary during a very hot spell 
to put in a screen door at their bedtime, leaving the main 
door wide open, until our own bedtime. In this case 
the front windows are also left open. The chicks being 
against the back wall they are in no danger from drafts. 

As soon as the chicks have become accustomed to the 
roosts being left down, usually in two or three days, the 
use of the wire is discontinued and the muslin on the back 
wall is removed. 

Use of the Yards 

The age when the chicks may be permitted outdoors 
is dependent entirely on the weather. January hatches 
are seldom turned out before they are 10 days old and 
then only on clear, warm days. We leave them out but 
a short time at first, herding them back into the house 
until they grow accustomed to running in and out. We 
use a sloping runway, made of boards, as wide as the 
doorway, to make it easy for them to go back and forth. 
Care is used to keep the space between the runway and 
the fence filled with dirt so the chicks cannot pack up 
in this space; and we also bank the corners of the yard 
with dirt to prevent crowding. 

If the yard is in growing green stuff we cut it with a 
lawn mower betore the chicks are turned out. The out- 



90 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR 

side water pot is not used until the chicks have been out- 
doors off and on for at least a week. This keeps them 
running into the warm house for water. 

Half of the mash troughs are brought into the yard 
from the house as soon as the weather permits, but on the 
January hatches this is seldom done before three weeks. 

The March hatches are let out earlier and they have 
their outside water pot and mash troughs earlier also. 
Common sense will dictate the course to be followed in 
respect to these matters. Our rule is to take no chances 
on exposure to inclement weather. If a cold wind or driv- 
ing rain sets in while the chicks are outdoors, when they 
are less than four or five weeks old, we take the trouble 
to herd them in. It is a bit troublesome at first, but they 
soon learn your purpose ; and in a short time your appear- 
ance in the yard along with a sudden drop in tempera- 
ture or a heavy rain will be a signal to "scoot." 

The second division of the yard is opened as soon as 
an appreciable number of the chicks begin to fly over the 
little division fence. We do not cut the green stuff in 
the second yard — they are allowed to mow it themselves. 
The feeding of green stuff inside the house is not dis- 
continued when the chicks are turned outdoors. 

If the weather is favorable at about 4 weeks, half of 
the sprouted oats and half of the evening grain is fed 
outdoors from that time on. 

With the late hatches care is taken to keep the first 
division of the yard from getting dusty ; it is wet down 
regularly. 

At from 5 to weeks the cockerels are taken out; but 
betore entering on this phase of the work the description 



WITH 4200 HENS 91 

will be interrupted to discuss possible troubles that may 
have been encountered meantime. 

Chick Troubles and Diseases 

The reader, especially the novice, might assume from 
the description given that we still have all the chicks that 
we counted out of the boxes. If such were the case there 
would be no money in egg-farming — it would be too easy 
to be profitable. 

We count on raising to the broiler and egg-laying 
stages about 80 per cent of the chicks hatched. Judging 
by what you read in descriptions of brooding appliances 
this may seem startling to you. And to the experienced 
man who uses another method it may seem that we do 
a lot of unnecessary work and spend a lot of time to get 
such poor ( ?) results. To the latter might be given the 
reminder that we are dealing with 1500 chicks all the time 
— if we had to do all these things in twenty or thirty 
different compartments, opening and closing that many 
gates for each operation, we would never "arrive." As 
a matter of fact the writer can easily handle from 4,500 to 
5,000 chicks single handed and alone on the plan herein 
given; and he not only can do it but he does and he 
handles a lot of other work along with it. 

The percentage of chicks raised is based on a year 
after year average and handling from five to six lots each 
season. In good seasons we do far better — we had one 
lot of 1,650 this year (1919) out of which the total brooder 
house mortality was only 85 chicks. This is the best 
record we ever made with such a large lot. It is not safe 
to count on doing that well one year with another in 



92 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR 

large lots. A greater percentage could probably be 
raised if the chicks are brooded in small lots; but one 
man could not handle so many. We prefer making a 
big showing of matured birds to a higher percentage and 
fewer of them. 

We count on half pullets and half cockerels. This too 
will vary with different seasons but half and half is a 
fair average. 

Danger Periods 

There are three distinct periods in the growth of 
chicks when they seem more susceptible to weakness and 
all are related to the process of feathering. The first stage 
is when they are two or three days out of the incubator. 
They are sprouting wing and tail feathers at this time. 
Some will go down under the strain, others will fall 
behind the flock in development and as a rule will never 
catch up. The second period, at from 10 to 14 days, is 
marked by the coming in of the feathers on the crop, on 
the back and on the neck; and the final period (in the 
chick stage) is when the feathers come in on the head, 
usually at from 5 to 7 weeks. 

Mention is made of these periods because we keep a 
careful eye on the chicks at that time. They always look 
ragged and rather hopeless when the head feathers are 
coming. We never allow them to suffer from exposure 
at such times. If they do not seem normally active we 
give them a tonic for two or three days. We use the 
Douglas Mixture in the water, at the rate of a teaspoon- 
ful to a quart of water. This is put into the water at 
the morning renewal; the aiternoon water is given clear. 
The formula will be given elsewhere — consult the index. 






WITH 4200 HENS 93 

Diseases 

Some chicks will die off for no apparent reason — they 
are simply found dead, apparently in perfect condition ex- 
cepting- for that sad fact. Experts find reasons for it — 
in practice we have no explanation. You may safely 
count on finding* one of these every now and again ; but 
if you find them dead in bunches, plump bodies, fine look- 
ing little chaps, look to your feed. Is your grain sound 
and sweet? If it is not fit for you to eat it is not fit for 
your chicks. And your bran — is it sweet and pure? Or 
do you find lumps of it tinged with greenish mould? Have 
you spilt water in the litter and allowed the soggy mass 
to remain, tainting the grain and waste mash, to be found 
and eaten by the little fellows looking for variety? Are 
you giving them partially decayed vegetable tops, or fer- 
mented table scraps? Is the meat in the mash faulty? 
Did you leave them exposed to a sudden chilling rain? 

Nine times in ten the reason for numerous sudden 
deaths will be found in this list. If you find the fault, 
give the whole flock a dose of salts next morning, common 
Epsom Salts, a tablespoonful to a gallon of water (dis- 
solve it in hot water and add to your pail) in mild cases, 
double the dose if the attack is severe. Give them fresh 
water in the afternoon, and follow with the Douglas Mix- 
ture, as already directed, the next two days. 

You may have some leg weakness — sturdy chicks get- 
ting dow r n on their knees. Once more the scientists give 
us the cause but we admit our ignorance. We have seen 
it with all kinds of brooding methods and with various 
feeding systems. We do not know the cause nor the 
proper remedy. If the attack is a severe one we assume 



94 HOW I MADE $10,000 IX ONE YEAR 

that a thorough cleansing and disinfecting of the intesti- 
nal tract cannot be harmful and we give them the salts 
and tonic. Our experience is that the greater number 
get over it. We segregate those affected, putting them 
in a large wire covered box, not too near the stove, until 
they get their legs again. 

"Puffy crops" is another common trouble. You will 
see chicks here and there, early in the morning, with 
bloated crops which on examination are found to be air- 
filled. An isolated case can be treated with a bit of 
common soda, dissolved in water and poured down the 
throat. If numerous cases develop give the whole lot a 
dose of soda (as already described), adding a heaping 
teaspoonful of ground ginger to two or three gallons of 
water; give this two mornings in succession. 

Toe-picking is often encountered. The cause has been 
ascribed to almost everything under the sun, from lack 
of meat to an injured toe suffered by the great grand- 
father. We think it is started by a nervous condition 
due generally to excessive heat and lack of air, either in 
the incubator (after hatching), on the road home, or in 
the brooder house. Once started it is hard to control. At 
the first sign we make sure there is plenty of fresh air 
in the house and that the temperature is not too high. 
Next the windows are darkened ; and if the light is still 
very strong the glass can be painted over with whitewash 
into which a little lampblack or some blueing is added. 
Then a special effort is made to keep the chicks busy — 
rake the litter into piles at intervals; they will try to 
scratch them down as fast as you make them. Add a 
little grain to each pile. Give them extra greens. Hang 



WITH 4200 HENS 95 

bunches of lettuce against the walls — anything that will 
divert them. This is the best treatment we know of. The 
chaps that have been attacked must be segregated in a 
box or something of the kind. As long as bloody toes 
are in evidence they will keep at it. 

White Diarrhoea and Coccidiosis 
There remain but two well-recognized troubles to be 
discussed, and, judging by the quantity of matter written 
concerning them, these two cause by far the greater 
mortality amongst chicks : White Diarrhoea and Cocci- 
diosis. The writer has so far been spared experience with 
either of them, although he has been called on many times 
for assistance in handling chicks so infected. Whether his 
having escaped them is due to his method of handling 
the chicks, either in brooding or in feeding, he is not 
prepared to say. This work being based entirely on his 
experience he might very properly avoid the issue, but 
with the understanding that he is dealing with theories 
he ventures these opinions, based entirely on obser- 
vation : 

White diarrhoea is most commonly recognized as 
"pasted-up-behind," which is self-explanatory. The 
chicks become droopy and listless, stand around humped 
up, usually crowding together for warmth, and die off 
in great numbers. 

Scientists tell us it is a bacterial disease which may be 
transmitted from generation to generation and from one 
chick to another. This sounds rather hopeless; and it 
may be so. The wonder then is that there are any chick- 
ens left what with the interchange that is constantly 
going on, especially with the growth of the commercial 



96 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR 

hatchery business. But we will admit that there is a 
distinct bacterial disease of the kind. Let us take refuge 
in the suggestion that what is commonly called white 
diarrhoea in chicks is not that particular disease. From 
that standpoint it can safely be discussed. 

The writer believes that bowel trouble in young chicks, 
evidenced by "pasting up," is due primarily to a chilling 
of the chick while very young and when it is most sus- 
ceptible to such a shock. And in the light of such a belief 
it will more readily be understood why he so strongly 
urges extreme care in handling the chicks. If the reader 
is sufficiently interested he may turn back the pages and 
learn how the writer would avoid the trouble, which to 
his notion is the only hope. 

A flock of chicks infected with white diarrhoea is well- 
nigh a hopeless proposition. The best we can do, all we 
can hope for, is to save the strongest. We would give 
them the salts and tonic treatment, the salts once a week, 
the tonic every other day. Most authorities dwell 
strongly on the merits of sour milk or buttermilk, kept 
before them all the time. This must not be given in tin 
or galvanized iron vessels. The best plan is to scald 
several of the mash troughs, to make them water tight, 
and feed it in the troughs. 

More important is the matter of avoiding further ex- 
posure. If the theory herein advanced, that the trouble 
is due to chilling, resulting in a cold settling in the intes- 
tines ; if this theory is correct, we must first of all make 
certain that the chicks are no longer exposed to chilling. 
Excepting late in the season they had perhaps best be 
kept in the house for a week or two, where the air is kept 



WITH 4200 HENS 97 

not only fresh and pure but tempered with warmth all 
over the room, and in addition, a zone of extra warmth 
may be found close to the stove for those needing it. The 
objection to letting them outdoors is that the stronger 
ones, those able to withstand possible severe changes in 
temperature, will always "scoot" out, and the weaker 
ones that need a tempered atmosphere will run with them 
as long as they can, finally bunching up where they are 
still in sight of the fellows who are enjoying themselves. 

A change in the feeding method is also advisable. Let 
them have their grain and greens as before, but abandon 
the dry mash feeding and substitute a moistened mash, 
fed twice a day say at 10 a. m. and 3 p. m. If milk of 
any kind is available, use it to moisten the mash, not a 
wet, soggy mass, but a crumbly mixture, one that when 
balled up in the hand will fall apart readily when the 
pressure is removed. The addition of finely chopped 
onions or garlic and stale bread, the latter previously 
soaked in milk or warm water, would be a decided bene- 
fit. Feed the grain sparingly and use the plats regard- 
less of age, but in addition scatter some grain promis- 
cuously through the litter. 

It would also seem advisable to clean the brooder house 
once a week while the trouble is running, putting in fresh 
straw at each cleaning. Keep the temperature up, espe- 
cially at night. Keep it high enough so that they will 
spread out. If the roosts have been let down, put them 
up again and resume the use of the wire circle, enlarg- 
ing it sufficiently so that the stronger chicks can get away 
from the increased heat. Watch the ventilation care- 
fully; give them plenty of fresh air at night, but do it 



98 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR 

through the air shafts rather than with open windows. 
Keep the windows open during the day, and if the days 
are uncomfortably warm, use a screen door on the main 
doorway. 

The writer believes that when you have done all this, 
you have done everything possible and that you will save 
the livable chicks. You may feed some of the many 
kinds of "dope" offered in the market if you wish — we 
never use any ; but we have not been driven to it, perhaps. 
Whether you use "dope" or not, give the chicks the care 
herein outlined; they need it. 

Coccidiosis looks as formidable in action as it does in 
print. It is said to be an infection of the Caeca, some- 
times called the Appendix or Blind Gut. The only cases 
that have come to the writer's observation have been m 
chicks that were from 6 to 8 weeks old. The outstanding 
symptom is the passing of a bloody mucus in the drop- 
pings. The birds go down very fast and the mortality 
is extremely heavy. Bichloride of Mercury has been used 
successfully in treating this disease. The preparation 
with instructions for use may be had from the Poultry- 
men's Co-operative Milling Association of Los Angeles. 

Don't Worry 

Should the reader be new at the work, let him beware 
of too much pondering over what has herein been related 
as to chick troubles; and more particularly let him be- 
ware of studying too closely the booklets and circulars 
that will come to him concerning diseases of chicks. 

Too many people are influenced by these lurid descrip- 
tions ; they immediately see all of the many symptoms de- 



WITH 4200 HENS 99 

scribed, and proceed at once to dose and doctor the imag- 
inary ills. 

One of the most successful small operators the writer 
knows, a man who has brooded twelve to fifteen hundred 
chicks each year for a number of years, has never had 
trouble of any kind excepting toe-picking ; and while the 
writer has not been present every minute of the time yet 
he is morally certain that this man has never fed or used 
an ounce of "dope" of any kind. But he lives with his 
chicks. If they are outdoors when young and a sudden 
cold wind comes up, he drops whatever he may be doing 
and puts his chicks inside. Constant care and thought 
for the welfare of those chicks is the only panacea he 
knows; and in the writer's estimation his is the best 
remedy. 

The fact that he raises a larger percentage of his chicks 
than we do would tend to prove, to us at least, that his 
greater care shows up in his better results. 

Let that be your main reliance ; look after your chicks 
carefully and methodically. And should trouble come to 
you in spite of it, check back your work (as an account- 
ant would say) — try and find the point wherein you failed 
to properly protect them, and the finding of the error will 
be its own best remedy. Make up for it by extra care as 
has herein been outlined ; your chances of overcoming the 
trouble will be far better if you follow some such method 
than if you try to make the correction by dosing and 
doping. The latter method is like unto a mother whose 
baby cries because of a loose pin and who quiets it with 
some "doped" soothing syrup while the pin remains. If 
you fail to go over your work and locate the cause of 



100 HOW I MADE $10000 IN ONE YEAR 

the trouble you have learnt nothing from the experience. 
And don't get "rattled." You'll forget to fill the fuel 
tank or set the house afire if you lose your head. You 
cannot expect your chicks that have been drooping to 
show up in fine mettle the day after you have removed 
some rotten feed or closed the door you left open the night 
before or restored the supply of fresh air which you acci- 
dentally shut off. Give nature a chance to repair the 
damage, with such help as you are giving her in the way 
of extra care and special feeding. 

Lice and Mite Troubles 

We have never had lice on young chicks hatched in an 
incubator and brooded artificially excepting during our 
second year in the work when we made the serious mis- 
take of mixing hen-hatched chicks with those hatched 
in the incubators. This nearly ruined the whole year's 
work. Since then we take special precautions to see that 
neither hen-hatched chicks nor old fowls gain access to 
the brooder houses and yards, nor are any such allowed 
the freedom of the place in the enjoyment of which they 
might wander near the brooder yards. 

You will have no mites in the brooder house if you 
spray the house in advance as we do ours. 

Cleaning and Spraying the Brooder Houses 

We clean and spray the brooder houses just once dur- 
ing the brooding stage. This is done at about 4 weeks, 
when the roosts are let down permanently. When the 
January chicks are taken out the house is cleaned and 
sprayed before the next brood comes on. When the 




WITH 4200 HENS 101 

March chicks are carried in the brooder houses beyond 
the 6 to 8 weeks' stage the house is cleaned every ten 
days and is sprayed once a month. 

Training the Family Cat 

It is an easy matter to train a cat to leave the chicks 
alone if the matter is gone about properly. If there are 
young cats on the place when chicks come in they are 
taken to the brooder house, in among the chicks, are 
given the "smell" of a chick along with a reasonable 
cuffing. This is repeated several times and thereafter 
they usually give the brooder houses a wide berth. If 
they are found nosing around the brooder house after- 
ward we make a point of having a pail of water handy 
and if the cat can be given one good drenching the les- 
son is learned. Should a cat be caught in the house or 
yard with a chick we drench it in a barrel; if the chick 
is dead we force it into its mouth for the drenching and 
then hang it around the cat's neck for a time. 

Old cats are harder to train but with patience it can 
be done. We have a mother cat on the place now who 
has been found time and again watching a gopher hole 
in a brooder yard with chicks all around her; and we 
have watched her take her kittens to the brooder yard 
fence, evidently to show them the chicks, and when they 
showed interest she would cuff them just as we did her. 
The farm is a sort of repository for stray cats. 

Buying Partly Developed Chicks 

At times an opportunity presents itself to purchase 
partly grown chicks. If your brooding has not been sue- 



102 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR 

cessful or if you could handle more young stock than 
you have this might be worth while. But great care 
must be exercised or your last state will be worse than 
your first. If it is at all possible it would be better to 
keep the new lot entirely separate from your own. If 
this is not practicable you must be sure that the birds 
are not coming from a place where disease has been ram- 
pant and that the chicks are not infested with lice. It 
seldom pays to buy a run down lot that someone has 
failed with — you are only risking your own. 

Under no circumstances should hen-brooded chicks be 
mixed with incubator lots; this applies no matter how 
clean of lice they may seem to be. The possible gain is 
not worth the risk. If you can't keep the hen-hatched 
lot separate from the others do not buy or take them. 

Taking Out the Cockerels 

We take out the cockerels at from 5 to 6 weeks — those 
that are easily distinguished. They can usually be se- 
lected by their combs and shape, but the selection at that 
age is more or less guesswork, especially for a novice. 
Take out only those of which you are reasonably certain, 
and as others show up, take them out. Keep cockerels 
with the pullets rather than to put pullets with the 
cockerels. 

They are put into the cockerel house which has been 
heavily bedded down with straw under the roosts, a 
narrow board being tacked to the edge of the roosts to 
keep most of the straw in place. If the weather is bad 
they are kept indoors; but in any event they are not let 
out until toward noon of the day after they are moved. 




WITH 4200 HENS 103 

Water and feed is provided in the house until they are 
turned loose in the early morning. 

We put 250 cockerels into each 9x10 compartment of 
the house. The first few evenings we make sure that the 
straw is banked up in the corners under the roosts so 
they cannot crowd and pile up ; they must be watched in 
this respect for several nights, until they resume their 
roosting. 

The further treatment of the cockerels will be dis- 
cussed in a separate chapter. 

Continuing the Brooder House Work 

Taking out the cockerels makes room in the brooder 
house and gives the remainder a better chance. If the 
weather is bad it may be necessary to slightly increase 
the stove heat to make up for the body heat lost by the re- 
moval of so many of the flock. 

No change is made in the feed or the method of hand- 
ling the chicks, excepting that the gradual change from 
chick size to coarse grain is continued until at 7 weeks 
the fine grain is entirely replaced. The January pullets 
are taken from the brooder house at from 7 to 8 weeks, 
dependent on the weather. If the weather is good we 
take them out at 7, otherwise they remain until 8. The 
March pullets remain in the brooder house longer, as we 
do not have room for them until the summer re-arrange- 
ment of the laying hens is made. If the room is available 
they can be removed even earlier than the January lot. 
We put in higher roosts (in the brooder houses) at 8 or 
9 weeks, spacing them 8 or 10 inches apart and about 18 
inches from the floor. 



104 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR 

The stove is turned off at about 7 weeks, (this applies 
to the March hatches), this depending again on the 
weather. They need but little artificial heat at night in 
normal weather after 6 weeks. We taper it off gradually, 
also increasing the fresh air supply by using the upper 
slide on the outlet shaft. 

When they are comfortable at night without the stove 
we start the stove in the morning before turning them 
outdoors and run it until they have been outdoors and in 
again for a "warming-up" after tasting the outdoor air. 
If the day is cloudy or chilly the stove is run all day, 
turned low; and at the last feed time it is turned up un- 
til they have settled down for the night when it is again 
turned off. This continued use of artificial heat is neces- 
sary because the house is a large one and there is little 
chance for the body heat of the birds to afford any rea- 
sonable degree of heat to the comparatively few birds 
who may need it during the day and who come indoors 
to find it. 

The third division of the yard is opened to the March 
pullets at about 8 weeks. 

Taking the Pullets From the Brooder House 

We put the January pullets directly into the laying 
house. The yards have meantime been ploughed and 
planted to barley which may be 12 to 18 inches high 
when they are moved. We put up a temporary fence of 
1^-inch mesh netting, enclosing a space the width of the 
house space to be used and about 25 feet deep. This 
makes it easier to train them to the new housing place 
and also saves trampling of the green barley. If we 



WITH 4200 HEXS 105 

need it we mow the barley in the remainder of the yard 
■ — it will grow up again very fast at that time of the 
year. 

In moving the pullets care must be exercised or some 
will be injured. They are nervous and flighty when their 
regular routine is interrupted and when they are shut in 
the house and some are being picked up and put into 
crates the others are liable to pile up in the corners, some 
being smothered. The best plan is to let a large part of 
the flock pass outdoors, keeping one or two hundred in- 
side. A panel of wire, 2 feet high and 5 feet long, cov- 
ered with burlap and set diagonally in one corner of the 
house, makes a good catching place. A few can be driven 
into it at? a time. Meantime we keep an eye out for a 
possible piling-up of the others — if they are crowding into 
the other corners we stir them up before going to work 
on the lot behind the panel. 

Never crowd the youngsters in the crates when mov- 
ing them. A little more time spent at it is a good invest- 
ment. We always put them directly into the house rather 
than in the yard. It saves a lot of time, work and worry 
in the evening; they are determined to get back to their 
old roosting quarters. This is obviated if they are carried 
directly into the new house and are kept indoors at least 
until the next day. 

We put the whole lot from a brooder house into a fifty- 
foot compartment of the laying house — usually six or 
seven hundred. A special set of roosts is put into place 
under the dropping boards. These roosts are made of 
3^x2 stuff, set 6 inches apart on cross bars of 1x3, 5 feet 
long. They are hinged to the back wall about 12 inches 



106 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR 

from the concrete floor with supports under the center 
and near the front end. Two sections of roosts are used, 
each about 6 feet long. This leaves a clear space between 
the two sections. The floor is bedded down heavily with 
straw; near the back wall the straw is packed in until it 
is flush with the roosts. We usually line the back wall 
with chunks from the bales and pile loose straw on top 
of these. The purpose is to prevent a piling up under the 
roosts which is likely to occur the first night or two. 
Chicks seldom take to the roosts immediately when they 
have been moved, even though they have been roosting. 

We keep them in the house for a full day after moving 
them to let them get acquainted with the new quarters; 
and if the weather is bad they are kept indoors several 
days. An exposure to severe weather is extremely bad 
policy just after moving a lot of young birds; they are 
nervous and excited at best and are far more susceptible 
to adverse influences. 

The awning is dropped at night; and if it is very cold 
(or wet and cold), we hang a burlap curtain from the 
dropboard reaching to within 8 or 10 inches of the floor. 
We make it a point to be with them at bedtime the first 
night; they have come to know us, and in their strange 
quarters it seems to have a quieting effect to be arouna. 
We look in on them at the 7 o'clock round; if the curtain 
was dropped and they seem to be too warm it is partially 
or completely raised — as seems best. We look in again 
just betore our own bedtime and make such readjust- 
ment as may be necessary. This extra watchfulness is 
not necessary alter a lew nights, when they have grown 
accustomed to the new place. 



WITH 4200 HENS 107 

The main feed troughs are cut off, either by removal 
(the covers being hung to the outside wall), or by tack- 
ing a piece of ^x3 stuff in the openings both inside and 
out. The mash is fed in troughs made of a 6-inch bot- 
tom with J/2x4 pieces for the sides, end pieces 6 inches 
high, and a piece of 1x4 across the top. Troughs are set 
both in and outside the house. Troughs of this same size 
are used for the March pullets in the brooder houses at 
from 7 to 8 weeks, and also for the cockerels when they 
reach that age. It is advisable to continue the use of two 
or three of the smaller sized troughs for a few days after 
the change is made — this applies at all stages. 

The regular house water pots are used after a few days. 
It is good practice to set one or two of the old style foun- 
tains inside the house, on platforms, just after the birds 
are moved. The pots are cleaned with a brush every day. 

The feed is continued as before. The pan or box of 
shell and grit must not be overlooked. 

When cockerels are spotted they are picked up prompt- 
ly and removed to the cockerel house. 

As soon as an appreciable number, say half, of the 
birds are found on the dropboard roosts at night — if they 
do not take to the dropboard compartments before they 
begin to look crowded underneath — the lower section is 
closed off and all are forced into the upper section. This 
is accomplished by the use of a set of sloping lath ladders 
set tight together, fastened to the front dropDoard sup- 
port Dy loops of wire hung on nails. The laths are nailed 
to the supports not more than \y 2 inches apart and the 
whole set is ntted perfectly both on the edges where tiie 
ditierent sections meet and on the lioor. Care should be 



108 HOW I MADE $10 ; 000 IN ONE YEAR 

exercised to have no opening large enough for a bird to 
slip through. With the use of these ladders no trouble is 
had in getting the birds to go "upstairs." If a few stay 
in the straw at the foot of the ladders we do not disturb 
them — they will go up in a night or two. But we make 
sure that none lie on the trough steps or in other out-of- 
the-way places. In a week or ten days the ladders may 
safely be removed, and the underneath roosts are taken 
out at the same time. A ladder is left in the center of 
each 16-foot section. 

As soon as the birds attain a proper size so they cannot 
crawl through the 3-inch openings, the main troughs are 
put into use; but several of the 6-inch troughs are con- 
tinued in use for a few days when the change is made. 

When the March pullets are put into the laying house 
(if they are from 10 to 12 weeks old, as they are with us), 
they are put directly on the dropboards by use of the lath 
ladders. They are kept indoors two days after moving if 
the weather permits. They can't be kept indoors that 
long if it is very warm. The same trough and yard ar- 
rangement is made as was made with the January lots. 
If they are to be moved at the earlier stage, 6 to 8 weeks, 
it would be necessary to use the same under-the-drop- 
board roosting arrangement as was used with the Jan- 
uary birds. 

Watch the birds carefully when you remove them from 
the brooder house and do not expose them to chilling 
weather. Bear in mind they no longer have a warm room 
to run to. If they have been turned outdoors and rain or 
a cold wind comes up better take the time to herd them 
into the house. They are at one of the susceptible stages 



WITH 4200 HENS 109 

of development and if you let them get soggy wet and 
chill you will surely have a run of colds. Do not let them 
outdoors very early in the morning. Give them a chance 
to have their morning drink and to eat some mash first. 

Being able to give the young pullets this extra protec- 
tion with food, water and scratch quarters available, is 
what makes the use of laying-house quarters superior to 
the portable colony house system. 

Should colds develop in spite of your care, give them 
the salts and tonic treatment, the salts one day and the 
tonic twice, a day apart ; if they are 8 weeks old or older, 
double the dose both of salts and tonic. If the colds 
continue give them this treatment each week ; and in case 
of a severe attack continue the tonic steadily for a week 
or ten days. 

Should the birds take to piling up at night (under the 
dropboards), put on the curtain when they go to bed and 
raise it part ways on your last inspection. The curtain 
makes of the compartment what is practically a closed 
box and several hundred birds in it will devleop a great 
deal of heat in a very short time. The opening at the 
bottom of the curtain will allow a sufficient supply of 
fresh air for an hour or two. But there will not be suffi- 
cient air for the whole night. The closed curtain is used 
simply to warm up the compartment as quickly as pos- 
sible ; and warming it up quickly will induce them to 
spread out before they sweat. 

The January pullets are kept on the chick mash until 
they are at least 4 months old; and if they are well de- 
veloped and many full-blown combs are in evidence at 



110 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR 

that time, the chick mash is continued until 5 months. 
Regular laying mash is then substituted. 

The March pullets are given the laying mash at from 
10 to 12 weeks, depending on the weather and their de- 
velopment. If they have grown fast and cool weather 
has prevailed (which has a tendency to stimulate growth 
and development) they are continued on the chick mash 
until 12 weeks ; but if it has been been hot at intervals 
(or steadily) the birds will be slower, and they are then 
given the heavier mash at 10 weeks. 

Culling the Pullets 

We have learned by experience and by observation to 
go very slow on discarding and selling so-called "cull" 
pullets. One can run up their production per bird by 
making a close culling, taking out and getting rid of all 
the undeveloped birds at from 4 to 5 months; but we 
are not so certain that it is a profitable thing to do. For 
several years we culled them in this manner ; but instead 
of getting rid of the culls we kept them in a separate 
pen, and by far the larger part of these "culls" were after- 
wards retained. One such lot, taken from March hatches, 
outlayed the main flock throughout the high priced egg 
season, and never did we find we would be warranted fn 
disposing of the entire lot. 

A case of mistaken culling that came directly to the 
writer's notice was one where a friend of his bought 75 
cull pullets from a dealer who obtained them from one 
of the large egg-farms; they were bought on the writer's 
advice. The purchaser knew how to handle chickens. 
This particular lot came into laying within two weeks 



WITH 4200 HENS 111 

of the time he got them and they made a flock average of 
better than 170 eggs in their first year — which is rather 
good for culls, especially since only one of the birds was 
discarded. 

We take out none but the plainest sort of culls — birds 
that are far undersized, scraggly, thin, draggy specimens. 
Anyone can spot these. They are usually an eyesore in 
the flock. Others that are lagging in development we 
segregate and keep to themselves for a few weeks, feed- 
ing them as we feed the broiler cockerels. This will bring 
them out if there is anything to bring out. If they do 
not respond to it we get rid of them. We think this plan 
is well worth following. 

These slower birds may not equal the high-laying 
record; but if they pay their feed and as little as 50c 
profit per bird we have made money by the transaction. 
If they are constitutionally weak they will go down in 
the first moult, if we do not cull them out meantime, so 
they are no detriment to our breeding plans. It would 
be an easy matter to band them if one wished to be 
absolutely sure of their proving no detriment. 

The matter of culling w r ill be discussed further in a 
subsequent chapter devoted to that subject. 

Feeding and Handling the Cockerels 

As our cockerels for breeding are taken from the Jan- 
uary hatches we do not force the January lots at the 
start. They are continued on dry chick mash, with 
sprouted oats fed at 9 to 10 a. m., and grain in the even- 
ing. Green stuff is fed, of course, and a pan of shell and 
grit is kept in each compartment of the yard. At 8 or 9 




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WITH 4200 HENS 113 

weeks we make the first segregation for breeding stock. 
The best looking, active, vigorous birds, those that stand 
out in the flock, are put aside, in a separate compartment. 
At this first segregation we take out about three times 
the number we are likely to need. These are continued 
on the same plan of feeding. 

The remainder, as well as all of the March cockerels, 
are forced for broilers. They are given a light feed of 
grain early in the morning; sprouted oats at about 9; 
moistened mash at 10 (fed crumbly, not soggy) ; greens 
at noon ; a light feed of grain at 3 to 4, followed by wet 
mash within an hour. The quantity of all feed is gauged 
carefully from day to day, an efifort being made to feed 
just what they will clean up in about ten or fifteen min- 
utes. Ample trough space is provided so that all trie 
birds can find a place. We use the 4-inch troughs at first 
and change to the 6-inch size as soon as the birds are 
large enough to eat from them comfortably. We keep 
them crowded; there is little room to spare either in the 
house or yard. 

They are sold off just as soon as the market will take 
them. We sell a great many at from % t0 one pound, and 
but few are carried to \y 2 pounds excepting when there 
is a glut in the market and we are compelled to run them 
up higher. This happens at times — always to our regret. 
With iis it is no question of whether or not it is profitable 
to feed them for the higher weight. Our object is to get 
rid of them as soon as we can. We have our hands full, 
and we think we make more money by giving our avail- 
able time to the pullets. 

A beginner, in his first season, with nothing but the 



114 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR 

young chicks on his hands and ample housing space avail- 
able and ready would be warranted in carrying the broil- 
ers long enough to make the 1 3/2-pound weight under the 
market conditions prevailing in 1918-19. But a Leghorn 
should not be carried beyond that point. They make the 
1^2-pound stage more quickly, on the average, than any 
other breed, but beyond it they fall back by comparison 
— almost any heavy breed will make the 2-pound stage 
in less time than a Leghorn will. Furthermore in the 
ordinary market any other breed is given the preference 
over a Leghorn at 2 pounds and upward. 

There are more culls in the cockerels as a rule, more 
thin and "wasty" specimens, than among the pullets. 
These should be segregated and sold as a separate lot and 
as soon as ever a buyer can be found who will take them. 
Price is no object. Feeding cull cockerels is about as 
easy a way to lose money as the writer knows of. 

Marketing Broilers 
In marketing a lot of cockerels we make it a rule to 
grade them by weight, putting the one pounders in one 
yard, the 1J4 pound in another, and the V/ 2 pound in still 
another. It pays to do this. Gauging the weight is a 
matter of experience. The only way to learn is to have 
a small family scale for the purpose. Two persons can 
handle the work to better advantage than one working 
alone. Shut the first lot in the house, the second lot out 
of the house. Take the scale into the house along with a 
short hook. Pick up the largest looking bird, weigh him, 
clip his tail and turn him loose again. Use him as a 
sample to guide your further choice. Birds that weigh 
up can be put into the yard through the slide door; those 



WITH 4200 HENS 115 

under weight can be put into the next compartment 
through the partition door; and the very small ones 
should be put into a crate standing outside. 

This is the easiest way we know of to make the grad- 
ing. If a bird is unruly and refuses to lie on the scale, 
fold the wings, one over the other, passing the joint of 
one wing clear round the other wing. When you have 
graded a few hundred in this manner you will soon learn 
to pick them out without separate weighing, and you 
can then use a crate in the yard with a platform scale 
just outside it, weighing six or more at a time. 

The grading should be done early in the morning be- 
fore the birds have filled their crops. This will save you a 
lot of dissatisfaction in dealing with your buyer. It is 
useless to try and sell a lot of feed (inside the birds) at 
broiler prices; and if you are shipping them, while it is 
good practice to give them some feed before sending them 
on the journey, to prevent undue shrinkage en route, be 
sure to allow for the weight of the feed in counting what 
you are likely to get for them, as it will be dissipated be- 
fore they reach the marketman; otherwise you will be 
like the farmer who said of his pig that it did not weigh 
as much as he thought it would and he did not expect 
it to. 

Cockerels Intended for Breeders 

The cockerels retained for possible breeders are given 
the use of the large yard as well as the small ones. The 
large yard has been planted to green stuff previously and 
they are turned into it. They are continued on chick 
mash, grain and sprouted oats until they are about 
months old when hen mash is substituted. Meantime we 



116 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR 

pick up any that do not measure up to standard and put 
them in with the younger broilers for market. This 
process of elimination is continued until none but the 
choicest specimens remain. If we have more than we 
need they are sold for breeding purposes. 

They become very troublesome at 4 months of age. 
There will be a lot of chasing and tearing around. Some 
will go down in distress and if they are not removed they 
will be killed. We keep a long-distance ear open at all 
times and at signs of a specially riotous time we investi- 
gate and remove the cause of the trouble. It is death to a 
hen or pullet that is permitted to remain in the cockerel 
yards if one should fly the fences. 

Some of the birds are likely to be kept in the houses by 
the bosses and will suffer for food and water. We make 
it a rule to turn them all out of the house early in the 
morning, closing the slide doors to keep them out, and 
leaving the door closed for an hour or two. They are 
less troublesome in the morning; and in this manner they 
are sure to get feed and water. In cool weather this can 
be done again in the evening. 

We tried a plan once suggested of keeping a few old 
cock birds with the young cockerels to act as policeman, 
putting them in early, while the cockerels were still quite 
young. This scheme worked beautifully. The old fel- 
lows kept the peace and made the youngsters behave, 
until one bright day the youngsters "rushed" the old fel- 
lows and answering the riot call we found the old men 
down on their knees in different corners; it looked as 
though a concerted plan had been agreed upon for every 
single one of the old cocks was utterly whipped. 



WITH 4200 HENS 117 

A brother poultryman recently suggested planting milo 
maize or egyptian corn in the large yard, putting it in 
rows close together and sowed thickly. This when 
grown forms a heavy thicket which would afford protec- 
tion. We shall try it another season. We welcome and 
appreciate any suggestion that might lead to easier con- 
ditions among the breeding cockerels. It might fairly, 
truthfully and slangfully be said "they are a tough lot, 
and the better they are the tougher. " 

Housing the Layers 

Our laying houses are intended to house 10 birds to 
the running foot — 500 to each 50-foot compartment. If 
it happens that we have 550 pullets in one brooder house 
lot we put them into the one compartment. After they 
begin to lay, when they have become firmly established 
in their roosting quarters, we open two or even three 
compartments and yards into one and plant first one yard 
then another to barley, shutting it off until the green stuff 
is 6 to 8 inches high. The birds are then turned into it 
and another section is planted. In this way growing 
green stuff is had in the yards for the greater part of the 
season. It is not practicable to grow anything in the 
yards in our section in July and August ; where it can be 
done it might very profitably be continued throughout 
the year. 

We do not mix birds hatched in different months. The 
January birds are kept together, likewise those hatched 
in March. It was the following of such a system that en- 
abled us to determine the relative earnings of birds 
hatched in different months. 



118 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR 

During the late fall, throughout the winter and early 
in the spring the outside doors of the watershed are 
closed after the birds have gone to roost; and they are 
not reopened until 7 or 8 o'clock next morning. During 
heavy rains they are kept indoors all day. 

Feeding Laying Hens 

The layers have dry mash before them at all times. 
Our standard formula of mash for laying hens follows: 

Pure Wheat Bran 640 pounds 

Wheat Shorts or low grade flour.... 320 pounds 

Ground Hulled Barley 200 pounds 

Yellow Feed Meal (Corn meal) 300 pounds 

Croley's High Protein Meat 300 pounds 

Croley's dried green bone 100 pounds 

Linseed Oilcake Meal 50 pounds 

Fine Charcoal 50 pounds 

Salt — finely sifted 20 pounds 

Total mixture 1980 pounds 

The meat product designated contains 75% of whale 
meat and 25% fish meal. 

The mash is mixed for us at the mill ; we supervise the 
operation. It is put up in 80-pound bags, which we find 
the most convenient size for handling. It is carried to 
the troughs in the bags. This has been found an easier 
and quicker method of handling than by loading on a 
wheelbarrow or cart which would be hard pushing or 
pulling through soft ground, and our ground is always 
soft. 



WITH 4200 HENS 119 

At from 8 to 8:30 A. M. sprouted oats are fed, at the 
rate of 1 gallon to 100 birds. This is fed in the yards, 
excepting in very bad weather when it is fed in the litter. 

When the oats are fed the mash troughs are looked over 
and any needing replenishments are looked after when 
the oats feeding is over. The troughs are filled to within 
about one inch of the top ; if it is run higher than this 
there will be waste. At intervals the mash remaining in 
the trough is pulled into one corner with a shovel or a 
hoe, to prevent its becoming stale. A card record is 
tacked to the wall in each mash storage place, with a 
column designated for each compartment of the house. 
As the mash is carried out it is recorded in the appro- 
priate column. This enables us to determine the weekly 
mash consumption of each compartment. 

Greens are fed either early in the morning or at noon. 
We use alfalfa or green barley, run through a feed cutter 
which is driven by a small motor; and for a large part 
of the year we have a supply of clover lawn clippings. 

Coarse shell is kept in a box in the water shed and at 
intervals coarse granite grit is added to it. 

Grain is fed at from 3 to 4 P. M., according to season. 
The quantity is varied according to mash consumption. 
We aim to feed half and half of mash and grain, the 
weight of the dry oats used being counted as grain. The 
schedule of grain quantities for the different compart- 
ments is made up once each week. If a certain compart- 
ment has taken 700 pounds of mash during the week that 
compartment is given 100 pounds of grain daily the weeK 
following. This while not absolutely correct is close 
enough for practical purposes. 







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WITH 4200 HENS 121 

During bad weather when the birds are kept indoors 
the grain is fed in the litter, otherwise it is fed in the 
yards. During the dry summer and fall months the 
yards are wet down thoroughly at regular intervals to 
avoid dust and its consequent dust-colds and throat irri- 
tation. We tried feeding part of the grain in the litter 
throughout the year but this had to be abandoned. It is 
impossible in this dry climate to avoid heavy clouds of 
dust rising when hundreds of birds are feeding and 
scratching indoors. 

During the winter months, when wet, chilly mornings 
prevail, a light feed of grain is scattered in the litter after 
the birds have gone to roost. This starts them working 
early in the morning. The air is usually moist at that 
season and the dust raised is not heavy enough to be 
detrimental. 

Beginning about September 15th and continuing until 
about the middle of December the moulting hens are 
given a special mash feed immediately after the grain is 
fed. Special low troughs are set in the yards and a small 
quantity of mash is carried to them in buckets. This 
mash is wet down lightly with a sprinkling can of water 
into which Douglas Mixture has been added at the rate of 
one tablespoonful to each quart of water. A measuring 
cup is used holding just the proper quantity for a sprink- 
ling can full. Only so much mash is put out as will be 
cleaned up before the birds go to roost. 

We use the 5-gallon oil cans, converted into pails, for 
feeding the sprouted oats and grain. The weight of a 
pail full of grain being ascertained it is an easy matter 
to gauge the quantity that should be put into each pail to 



122 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR 

make up the proper amount for each yard of birds. 
When the mash is checked out at the end of the week and 
the pen-quantity of grain is ascertained, it is noted on a 
card tacked to the wall and the pails are filled each day 
according to that record. 

The grain used is varied according to the market prices 
of different kinds. We try always to feed some wheat 
and some yellow corn and we avoid the use of seed bar- 
ley (with the hulls on it), when we can do so without 
running the grain cost too high. Wheat and corn are the 
standard of price with us and we value other grains ac- 
cording to their supposed feeding value as compared with 
these. For instance, if seed barley is more than 80% of 
the cost of wheat and the wheat can be had, we buy the 
wheat; if the sorghums — milo maize, egyptian corn, 
kaffir corn, etc. — are more than 80% of the price of yellow 
corn, we buy and use the yellow corn. But we try at all 
times to have at least 3 grains in the mixture. 

At the present time we are mixing 400 pounds of 
wheat, 100 pounds of yellow corn and 130 pounds of 
egyptian corn. Until the barley market was allowed to 
run wild — at the time this is written barley is quoted us 
in large quantities at $3.50 per hundred and we are buy- 
ing a good grade of wheat for $3.60 — until this occurred 
we used 110 pounds of re-cleaned seed barley in the mix- 
ture. We also had milo maize in the mixture — 130 
pounds of it. It is now quoted at but a few cents below 
yellow corn, so we abandoned it. 

In less troublous days we fed a straight mixture of 2 
parts of wheat and 1 part of yellow corn ; and if a reason- 
able price level is ever established again we would return 
to that standard mixture. 



WITH 4200 HENS 123 

The grain is mixed on the concrete floor in the teed- 
house and it is put directly from the floor into the pails, 
the remainder of one mix lying there until the next day 
when it is used up and a fresh mix is made. 

We use nothing but sweet, sound, well matured grain; 
under no circumstances do we buy or use damaged stuff. 
Corn must be watched especially — it must smell and taste 
sweet. Mouldy feed of any kind is extremely expensive 
chicken feed. It not only hurts the birds, often causing 
diarrhoea, but it checks the egg flow. We are about 
ready to admit that a poultryman could better afford to 
starve his birds for three or four days than to give them 
mouldy feed. 

The grain is mixed and the pails are filled and set in 
place, ready for feeding, as soon as the early morning 
work is over. There is always time to spare at that period 
of the day. During the dry season the pails are carried 
to the several gates and are covered over to keep wild 
birds out of the grain. When feeding time comes there 
is no delay, and the actual feeding takes but a very short 
time. The pails are carried into the yards and one is 
tilted under the arm and the grain is spilled out in a thin 
stream. The aim is to move as quickly as possible so 
that all of the birds may have an equal chance, and to 
make as long a stream as possible. In the larger yards 
two men usually work together and a double stream is 
run out. With the system we employ it is surprising how 
quickly a flock of four or five thousand birds can be fed. 

We make it a rule never to deviate from the feeding 
plan — we start at the same yard each day and the round 
is always identical. It makes the birds nervous to feed 



124 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR 

on a helter-skelter plan, starting here one day, there the 
next. 

We feed by the clock and vary the time with the 
weather. As the seasons change, making it necessary to 
feed earlier or later, we advance or drop back a few min- 
utes each day until the proper hour is reached. The flock 
should not be kept standing at the fence for an hour or 
two — until you return from a visit, perhaps. You are 
losing money every minute they stand there, for a stand- 
ing hen spells a standing loss ; your money-maker is 
moving. 

When it is necessary to keep the birds indoors the 
feeding is much slower as the grain must then be scat- 
tered widely because of limited floor space. This cannot 
be avoided. The change always affects the egg yield, as 
does a sudden change in the weather ; it is simply a case 
of the choice of two evils. 

The actual feeding of the oats, greens and grain, is 
never interrupted once it has been started. We do not 
stop to pick up an egg that lies in the yard or a bird that 
is out of condition — such things are attended to when the 
feeding is finished. Nor do we allow strangers to crowd 
the fences, let alone enter the yards when the birds are 
feeding. Ladies with violent clothes or fancy parasols 
or even ordinary umbrellas (carried open), frolicsome 
children, playful dogs — all of these are barred from the 
vicinity of the houses and yards. Young pullets are espe- 
cially susceptible. An open red parasol once gave us 
several hours' work gathering a flock of young pullets 
from the tops of houses and the neighbors' premises. 

We always call the birds when feeding so as to round 



WITH 4200 HENS 125 

up any strays that may be working in the house. So far 
as the birds are concerned it makes no difference what 
your call may be, whether a verse from the Bible or a bit 
of profanity, so that it is the same call all the time. As 
a matter of fact the writer talks to (or at?) the birds from 
the time they are hatched. We think they understand 
the spirit from the tone. Going through the houses at 
night we can start one lot after another to answering a 
softly spoken greeting. The habit is worth while when a 
riot breaks out in the flock at night, as it will at times. 
The writer can open a compartment door wherein the 
birds are in full cry and quiet them with a few words; 
and if it breaks out again we wander around rather care- 
fully after making sure that our shooting irons are really 
loaded. 

The hens in the broody coops are given no mash ; 
sprouted oats, greens and grain are fed them on the reg- 
ular rounds. 

Cost of Feeding a Hen 

The table following shows the month by month cost 

of feeding a hen on our farm during 1913 and 1918. The 

comparison is interesting. 191 3 191 g 

January 15 l/3c 18 3/4c 

February 15 1/4 19 3/4 

March 13 • 20 1/2 

Aprii 13 1/3 21 

May °. 13 1/2 22 1/2 

June 14 2/5 20 1/4 

July 14 19 1/2 

August 13 1/3 16 1/2 

September 10 1/2 16 1/4 

October 13 1/2 17 1/4 

November 12 1/2 17 3/4 

December 14 1/4 20 2/5 

Totals $1.63 1/10 $2.29 4/10 



WITH 4200 HENS 127 

The term "Feed" as used in this connection is a mis- 
nomer to this extent — we include the cost of disinfec- 
tants and litter used. 

Allowance must be made for the fact that we buy in 
large quantities. But we do not speculate on the grain 
market — our feed is bought from month to month as 
needed. 

Sprouting Oats 

The oats are soaked in wooden pails overnight and are 
then spread in wooden boxes having sides and ends 6 
inches high. In cold weather the grain is piled up in 
one end of the box and is heavily blanketed with sacks 
at night, the boxes resting flat on the ground. It must be 
kept moist but not soggy-wet. The box should be set 
out of level so the surplus water will drain off. The grain 
is stirred up each day. When the sprouts begin to show 
it is thinned out by spreading it in the box. In warm 
weather it is piled up about 3 inches high at the start and 
is gradually spread out. The grain is always covered 
over with burlap which is kept moist. The boxes are 
raised from the ground during warm weather and are 
sheltered from the direct rays of the sun. 

Care must be exercised to keep the grain from heating 
and spoiling. Nothing short of experience will demon- 
strate how long it may lay and how thickly it may be 
kept. In normal spring weather we allow it to lay about 3 
days from the time it is put into the boxes. If a lot "goes 
bad," in which event it will either show green mould or 
become slimy, with a disagreeable sour odor, it is thrown 
out. Spraying the boxes at intervals with the regular 



128 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR 

spraying material is good practice. We always have one 
box empty and drying out. 

The use of sprouted oats is not a necessity. We go to 
the extra trouble because the birds relish the feed; it is 
a palatable variety and anything of the kind is a benefit. 
It has been said by men of scientific trend of mind that 
sprouted oats are rich in the digestive agent, vitamen. 
This may or may not be so — it is entirely beyond our 
limited mentality. We feed it for the reason given. 

Water and Care of Water Pots 

We use two one-gallon stone water jars in the water 
shed of each 50-foot compartment. These are fed by sell- 
regulating float valves. A faucet is installed in each 
water shed for use in cleaning the pots, watering the 
broody hens, and wetting down the yards. The water 
pots are scrubbed with a coarse brush every day, usually 
just before or just after noon. We think it important 
that this be done. Particles of dry mash adhering to the 
beaks of the birds are washed into the pots and if this is 
allowed to stand in the pots it soon becomes sour and 
forms a slimy mass which would be far from healthful. 

The birds must have fresh pure water at all times. 
Neglect your feeding if you must neglect something, but 
do not neglect the w r ater. During hot weather we make 
sure that the outer doors of the water shed are in such 
position that the pots are shaded from the sun. 

Gathering the Eggs 
We gather the eggs twice each day — at 1 and 5 p. m. 
We use 4 gallon galvanized iron pails, which hold 150 
eggs nicely. Two pails are carried to a compartment ; 



WITH 4200 HENS 129 

one is hung out of reach of the birds while the other is 
filled ; the full one is set outdoors, and when both are filled 
they are carried to the egg room. We do not load them 
on a wheelbarrow or cart. The distance is not great and 
we find the breakage to be much less if they are carried. 

If an egg is dropped the remains are picked up as well 
as may be and are thrown into a mash trough. It is bad 
practice to allow the birds to eat a broken egg where it 
lies. Not only may egg eating be thereby encouraged 
but the hens soon form the habit of following the egg 
buckets, and if by chance a bucket of eggs is left for a 
moment they will be found pecking at the eggs. An im- 
perfect shell near the top means an egg broken into the 
mass ; and this in turn means washing the whole lot as 
the white will glue eggs together wherever it touches 
them. Nothing but a thorough soaking will disengage 
them and many will adhere and be broken in spite of it. 

At the last gathering the nests are closed. The brood- 
ies can be taken out and put into the broody coops dur- 
ing the last gathering. The nests are opened after dark, 
at which time the outer doors of the house are closed dur- 
ing the late fall, throughout the winter, and in the early 
spring. The compartment doors are always closed at 
night and are re-opened when the sprouted oats are fed 
in the morning. 

The trip through the houses after dark is thought ad- 
visable. One can keep in touch with the roosting condi- 
tions, and should colds develop it will quickly be noticed. 

Grading and Packing the Eggs 
We grade the eggs according to the specifications of the 
Los Angeles Produce Exchange. This calls for three 



130 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR 

grades : Eggs weighing not less than 22 ozs. per dozen, 
averaging not less than 24 ozs. per dozen, and weighing, 
case included, not less than 55 pounds to the 30 dozen 
case; these are called "Fresh Extras/' The second grade 
is known as "Pullets" — not because of their being laid 
by pullets but because of their size. They must weigh 
not less than 18 ozs. per dozen, running to less than 22 
ozs. and averaging 48 pounds to the 30 dozen case, case 
included. Those running smaller than the "Pullet" size 
are called "Peewees" ; this grade is made up of the first 
eggs laid by the pullets which are usually undersized. 

Each egg must conform to the weight requirement. 
This is obtained by the use of a special scale made for 
the purpose ; the weights provided with the scale will 
balance one-twelfth of 22 and 18 ozs. respectively. A 
little practice enables one to weigh the eggs very rapidly 
and after a time many can be passed into the proper grade 
without weighing. 

We pack no eggs with weak or broken shells ; and eggs 
that are very much soiled are washed. These are put 
into a special case during the storage season (March to 
May) as a washed egg will not stand up in cold storage. 

A special grade is made for other than white-shelled 
eggs but as we have no other this does not interest us. 

The eggs are allowed to stand in the buckets over night 
so that the animal heat may escape before they are 
packed. We have demonstrated the fact that eggs packed 
immediately will sweat in the card board fillers of the 
case and the quality is thereby impaired, especially for 
storage. Contrary to general belief an egg taken from the 
nest while yet warm and cooked immediately is not as 



WITH 4200 HENS 131 

good an egg as one that has been allowed to become 
"set" by a 24-hour cooling. 

Marketing the Eggs 

Our entire output of eggs for table use is sold to a 
wholesale egg merchant on a yearly contract. The eggs 
are called for and empty cases are returned three times a 
week. We make no sales whatever outside the contract 
— not even a single dozen. The merchant who contracts 
our output knows from one day to another just what he 
may count on. Such an arrangement enables one to ob- 
tain the best possible price. 

It is the writer's belief that a middleman or his equiv- 
alent in some form or another is an absolute necessity, 
especially in the egg business, the product of which de- 
teriorates so rapidly. The egg farmer must have a place 
where he knows his entire product will be accepted and 
welcomed at a fair price. If he is working on the right 
system his time will be well taken up, especially during 
the season of heaviest production. At that time he should 
be brooding chicks. To interrupt this most important 
activity or to curtail the number he might handle by giv- 
ing part of his time to the selling end of the business is 
a serious mistake. 

If the man who markets his products in small lots, 
selling what he can at retail and dumping the remainder 
finally at wholesale, would take the trouble to keep record 
of the time spent along with the difference in price re- 
ceived for the remainder, compared with what he could 
get if he sold the whole product, he would easily see tne 
point herein made. But his greatest loss is not apparent. 



132 



HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR 



This is represented by the profit he might have made from 
the additional pullets he could have raised. 

A retail merchant counts his time, interest on invest- 
ment, wear and tear on delivery equipment, and similar 
charges as part of the cost of the article he handles. The 
average farmer, on the contrary, counts none of these 
when estimating the additional profit he made by re- 
tailing. But the fact that he does not count them cuts no 
figure — the cost is there just the same. 

The view expressed, summed up, is that the egg farm- 
er should make his entire profit in the production of the 
egg. If there is no profit, or too small a profit, in the pro- 
duction end of the business he had better retire from it. 

Co-operative marketing of the product of egg farms has 
come to be much in vogue in California. Where the pro- 
duction is limited, and especially where a number -of egg 
farms are located within reasonable distance of each 
other, the plan has much in its favor. The all-important 
question is, what does it cost to handle the business? 
Perhaps equally important is the question of how far 
should the operation be carried? When co-operative 
associations enter the field of retailing and cold-storage 
they are reaching the zone of thin ice from the writer's 
point of view. Insofar as they may be used in establish- 
ing and maintaining a fair price for the product, the cosi 
of which they should have no difficulty in determining, 
they are clearly within their proper field. 

The subject is a large one, however, and what has been 
said merely touches the surface. Those who are consider- 
ing that form of marketing their product may well give 
thought to these general suggestions. 






WITH 4200 HENS 133 

Selling Hatching Eggs and Baby Chicks 

We contract our surplus hatching eggs to a commercial 
hatchery on the same general plan that is followed in 
marketing eggs for table use ; we make a contract for the 
whole supply by the year. And as has already been said, 
we do no hatching whatever. This course was adopted 
after a number of years' experience doing our own hatch- 
ing and selling such odd lots of hatching eggs as we could 
find a market for. We do not obtain as high a price for 
the eggs in this way but we sell them all. We prefer a 
certain small premium to a possible larger one. 

To those who prefer making the experiment for them- 
selves or to those who have time to spare for such activi- 
ties we have one bit of advice to offer : Do not make the 
common mistake of booking in advance orders for eggs 
or chicks that may, by any possible chance, interfere with 
your own hatching dates. Set your own dates and stick 
to them. Should there be any doubt of your having 
enough eggs from your own flock arrange for the possible 
deficit elsewhere. Let nothing interfere with getting 
your chicks and all of them at the time or times you de- 
cide to have them. 

The writer has seen a number of ventures founder on 
this rock. The demand for hatching eggs and baby 
chicks is extremely heavy during the choice hatching 
months. To grab off the few pennies that might lie in 
selling the eggs at hatching prices the thoughtless poul- 
tryman engages and sells the eggs at that time and 
hatches for himself when the demand slackens. This is 
suicide. It is akin to selling all your good apples and 
keeping the rotten ones for yourself. 



134 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR 

Cleaning and Disinfecting 

The dropping boards are cleaned every ten days and 
the concrete floors are cleaned of litter every three 
months. In wet weather cleaning the drop-boards every 
week is advisable. 

A long handled, square-point shovel is used, face down, 
on the drop-boards, the droppings being pushed toward 
the back wall; this scrapes them clean. A large hoe is 
then used to pull the mass into a wheelbarrow, specially 
built to fit under the edge of the drop-board. A wide rake 
and a scoop shovel are the best tools for cleaning out the 
litter, along with a spade to loosen any droppings that 
adhere to the concrete. 

When the buildings are new we spray them before 
birds are put into them. Thereafter the underside of the 
roosts and crossbars and the drop-boards are sprayed 
after each cleaning. When this has been done for sev- 
eral months the wood becomes thoroughly saturated 
and they are then sprayed once each month. 

We use stove distillate, a thick brown liquid, and mix 
with it 5 per cent of creosote. The latter can be bought 
in drug or paint stores. It is applied with a 5-gallon 
compressed air sprayer which can be bought at seed 
stores. 

The spraying is usually done in the afternoon, after 
the first gathering of eggs, to lessen the chance of the 
birds getting their feet into the stuff and then walking 
over a lot of eggs. This mixture is likely to cause dis- 
colored feathers, especially in wet weather, but years of 
use ol it has demonstrated to us that it will keep out 
vermin and we chance the discolored feathers. 



WITH 4200 HENS 135 

We do not approve of the water mixtures for spray- 
ing; we prefer the oily base which saturates the wood. 

A cheap grade of kerosene may be used in place of 
distillate. 

Disposition of Manure 

All of the manure, both drop-board material and litter, 
is sold under a yearly contract. The purchaser does the 
hauling. 

There is keen competition for it in this section for use 
in fertilizing citrus groves. It seems generally agreed 
that it is the most valuable of all fertilizers. It is worth 
at this time about $8.00 per two-yard load, at the farm. 
When we started in the business we gave it away. Our 
total sales up to this time have brought us more than 
$1,200. 

A cubic yard of drop-board material averages about 
750 pounds in weight during the dry summer months. 

Freshening the Yards 

The yards in use are either ploughed or cultivated once 
each month. If the ground is dry the sprayers are put 
on and it is thoroughly wet down the day before the 
ploughing is done. 

When old hens are sold off and yards are vacant they 
are ploughed and sowed to barley. This is used to sup- 
plement the supply of green stuff through the late fall 
and winter. Barley planted in September is high enough 
to be cut with a scythe in about six weeks and we have 
had as many as four and five cuttings from it. It is 
finally allowed to head out and mature when it is cut 
and used for litter. Maturing the grain seems to purify 



WITH 4200 HENS 137 

the soil most thoroughly. The edges and corners of the 
yards are turned over with a spade so that no unclean por- 
tions remain. 

When several compartments of birds are opened into 
one, by opening the partition doors, one section of the 
yard is closed off. This is sowed to barley and the birds 
are turned into that yard as soon as the barley is 6 or 8 
inches high, the other section being sowed. This is con- 
tinued throughout the year, excepting during July ana 
August when hot weather makes barley-growing im- 
possible. 

Young stock is never put into a yard without growing 
barley in* it. This is an invariable rule. 

Breeding Plan 

We use nothing but January hatched male birds for 
breeding purposes, the sons of December layers. Cock- 
erels are mated with yearling hens and yearling cocks 
with January hatched pullets. We prefer not using eggs 
from the January hatched pullets for the January hatches 
of the following year — they are used for the March 
hatches. 

We mate at the rate of 20 to 1, with not less than 500 
birds in one yard and house; as a rule we have from 1,000 
to 1,500 in one flock. The cockerel-hen mating is made 
early, usually in August; the pullet-cock mating is de- 
ferred until November. 

The birds should be mated at least two weeks before 
the eggs are used. 

Our experience has been that the male birds are much 
better off if they are not taken out and segregated from 



138 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR 

the hens once they are mated. We never separate them 
if the male birds are to be used in the breeding yaras 
again. We double them up when the hatching season is 
over, keeping in one yard all the males that will be car- 
ried over. The males are dusted for lice when the change 
is made and again when the yards are made up for the 
following season. The male birds are inclined to neglect 
the dust bath. 

The hens are not selected — we mate the flock as it 
stands. A hen that has passed through her first laying 
season, escaping our culling sickle, and that goes through 
the moult in good shape, again escaping being culled, is 
considered a fit mother to our next year's pullets. This 
may not be the correct method, but it is the method em- 
ployed here; and it is the method employed in gaining 
warrant for the title of this book. 

Selling the Old Hens 

We carry the layers through two laying seasons and 
sell them when they reach the non-profit stage at the end 
of the second season. Pullets raised in the spring of 1919 
will be sold in the fall of 1921. When the egg yield de- 
creases to a questionable point we make a rough calcu- 
lation of the daily cost of feeding the lot of hens to be 
sold ; and when the value of the eggs laid in any one day 
does not show a profit over the feed cost the birds are 
sold in one lot. 

It is possible to pick out the birds that are still laying, 
either by their appearance (if one has the experience nec- 
essary to judge), or by taking. them off the nests day by 
day for four or five days ; we have done this several times 



WITH 4200 HENS 139 

and made a little profit by it, but as a rule the profit to 
be made thereby is too small to warrant the time and 
effort expended. We take no interest in anatomical tests. 

We arrange with a market man to take the whole lot. 
Grading the hens by weight usually results in a better 
price ; this can best be done at the time they are crated. 
But we try to make a bargain on the basis of splitting the 
price between the high and middle quotations. The low 
price, which applies to culls of very light weight, is not 
used in this kind of bargaining where the "pen run" is sold 
and none are selected to be saved out. If the best are 
being saved out to be carried over the price is likely to be 
shaded. In selling the "pen run" of two-year-old birds in 
the months of September and October we find they will 
average about Zy 2 pounds. If they are sold earlier, or if 
they are carried until late in November, they are likely to 
weigh a fraction more. Older hens will generally aver- 
age more in weight. 

We prefer having the birds crated and made ready for 
transporting to market at from 3 to 4 o'clock in the morn- 
ing. At this time the majority of them can be taken off 
the roosts and put into the crates inside the house. This 
is a great saving in time and labor. We have handled 
lots of a thousand in this manner and had the loaded 
trucks drive away before 7 o'clock. 

Egg Yield per Hen 

Our best egg production in 1918 was from a yard of 500 
pullets, with an average of 152.4 eggs per pullet. The 
lowest pullet yield was 145.1 per pullet from a yard that 
originally contained 900 birds hatched March 30th. The 



140 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR 

hens laid an average of 120.4 eggs in 11*^ months. The 
table following shows the spread of the yield from the 145 
egg pullets and from the hens : 

Egg Yield Egg Yield 

Month per Pullet per Hen 

September, 1917 1.1 6. 

October 5.6 3.7 

November 10.5 3.2 

December 13.7 6. 

January, 1918 13.1 10.3 

February 12.8 12.2 

March 17.2 16.8 

April 17.3 17.4 

May 16.7 16. 

June 13.4 12. 

July 12.6 10.3 

August : 11.1 6.5* 

Total 145.1 120.4 

This table is presented for the benefit of the beginner 
who may wish to know what he might expect as to egg 
yield from month to month. Its use as a guide is only 
relative, however. Weather conditions, both during the 
growing period and during the laying season, will ma- 
terially affect the egg-flow. Some seasons there will be 
a heavier production during October and November with 
a decline in January, and in such case the yield in the 
following season is apt to be lighter, especially during the 
summer and fall. 

*NOTE: The hens were sold on August 15, 1918, on which day they failed to pay 
their feed bill. 



WITH 4200 HENS 141 

Could we control the egg-flow we would much pre- 
fer having a good, but not heavy yield from the pullets 
during the first fall with a proportionately heavier flow 
during the second year. We have had years when this 
occurred and we think it is more nearly the ideal. 

Electric Lights 

We do not use electric lights to force the pullets into 
heavier laying during the fall. We have so far been un- 
able to gain information, based on authentic records, as 
to the profitableness of such a method, especially if the 
birds are carried through a second season and are used 
for breeding. 

A true comparative test of the merits of electric light- 
ing involves, from our point of view, a two-year laying 
record along with a comparison of the number of eggs 
produced during the profitable hatching months ; the 
comparative hatchability of the eggs and livability of the 
chicks ; and finally, the comparative mortality among the 
layers during both years. 

When, if ever, the profits in the work grow more scant 
we will make the test; but following our invariable rule 
on experiments we will divide a lot of pullets hatched 
at the same time, from the same parent stock, raised 
under identical conditions, and divided impartially, one 
lot being lighted, the other not. During the last few 
years, since electric lighting sprang into favor, we have 
done too well financially to warrant departing from our 
proven methods. 

200-Egg Hens 

The month-by-month yield herein outlined will doubt- 
less be disappointing to the beginner, especially so if he 



142 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR 

reads poultry items telling of two hundred and three hun- 
dred-egg hens. The egg-laying contests conducted 
throughout the country are apt to be discouraging also, 
unless the records are carefully analyzed. 

In either case the reader must consider not only the 
number of birds that reached the high goal, but the num- 
ber competing that did not reach it. An authority has 
stated that in one contest where nearly 3,000 pullets were 
entered, from 5 to 15 in 100 laid 200 eggs or more. Those 
entered are of course the very cream of the flock from 
which they came. If we allow but 1,000 birds for each 
flock represented, the 3,000 mentioned represented then 
a total of 300,000; and if we take the maximum of 15 
per cent to have reached 200 or more eggs, we have 450 
birds of that class out of 300,000. 

Viewed from this standpoint 200-egg hens would seem 
to be almost as scarce as the proverbial hen's-teeth. 

A higher production per bird may be attained by keep- 
ing fewer in one enclosure as is done in the laying con- 
tests. Here the economic feature enters into play 
again. How much more will it cost for housing and in 
day-by-day labor to increase the productiori in this 
manner? 

We are satisfied that we can make more net money in 
the course of the year by carrying them in large flocks 
as we do, with a production as herein outlined; not per 
hen, but in sum total. And we would rather have 4,200 
birds showing a net profit of $2.50 each than 1,500 giving 
a return of $5.00 each. 



WITH 4200 HENS 143 

Trap-nesting and Other Forms of Intensive Selection 

Trap-nesting, carried on persistently and systematically 
in connection with scientific breeding and careful pedigree 
work, may unquestionably be made the means of in- 
creased production per bird. But from the standpoint 
of the commercial egg-farmer the economic features must 
be taken into consideration. It is purely a question of 
what it will cost in money, time and labor to attain the 
desired objective and whether or not there will be a 
greater net profit at the end of the year — not per bird, 
but in total dollars. 

That "total net profit" is the only influencing factor 
with us, allowance being made for the fact that we wish 
to continue year after year. Almost anyone would rather 
have two 150-egg pullets than one that will lay 200 — 
if profit is the objective. We have never experimented 
with trap-nest work, but the writer believes that he can 
raise and care for a sufficiently greater number of 140-150- 
tgg pullets by the plan and with the methods he follows 
to more than offset the profit to be derived from the 
higher individual production that may be attained by the 
trap-nesting method. 

And so we do not trap-nest. 

We do not practice other forms of selection of layers 
by anatomical tests because we have no faith in the 
accuracy of any such method that has come to our atten- 
tion. So far as we know no such method has stood the 
test of a comparison with trap-nest records ; nor do we 
know of anyone who has succeeded by any such method 
in gaining a greater net profit in one year than we make 
with a flock of equal size and with the expenditure of 
the same time and labor. 



HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR 



Size of Eggs 

To a certain extent the size of the eggs laid will be 
dependent on the breeding of the hens that laid them. 
A chick hatched from a large egg will not necessarily 
prove to be a layer of large eggs ; but a flock of hens raised 
from chicks hatched out of uniformly large eggs will be 
more apt to average large eggs than a flock from chicks 
hatched out of eggs which have not been selected for 
size. Nor will a large hen necessarily lay a large egg — 
the reverse is more likely to be true with Leghorns. 

The eggs will vary in size with the age of the layer; 
and feed, water, weather, and what might be termed tran- 
quility will also affect the size. 

Pullets just coming into laying usually lay small eggs 
and the quicker the maturity the smaller the first eggs 
will be. Fall hatched birds mature quickly and will lay 
small eggs for a long time. The same may be said of 
January hatches; but the eggs will grow larger in less 
time. March hatched birds will lay but few small eggs 
at the start if they come in normally — in from 5 l /2 to 
6^ months ; if they are slow and do not come in until 
7 or 8 months the first eggs will be larger, often of normal 
size. 

In the second laying season eggs from all of these birds 
will be larger, many of them too large. But in the third 
season they are apt to be smaller if the hens have run to 
fat. This has been our experience, though it may not 
hold good generally. It seems to be agreed, however, 
that hens three years old and older lay more eggs having 
imperfect shells. 

Improper feeding will affect the size of the eggs. On 



WITH 4200 HENS 145 

our mash formula, which carries 15 per cent of meat and 
fish meals, we have found that feeding half and half of 
grain and mash gives us a more uniformly large egg. 
If the feed gets out of balance, the error shows up quickly 
in the larger proportion of small eggs laid. This par- 
ticular point, confirmed later by experiments, was first 
called to the writer's attention by his very good friend, 
Mr. M. A. Schofield. 

Failure of the water supply, even for a short time, will 
result in smaller eggs ; so, too, will the giving of salts. 

A sudden hot spell following moderate weather is 
usually accompanied by a run of smaller eggs. 

Fright, or moving hens from one place to another, will 
be followed by a run of smaller eggs. But back of it all 
is the question of whether or not the birds come from 
a strain that has been bred to lay large eggs. 

Nest Materials 

When the nest boxes have been thoroughly sprayed we 
allow time enough for the spraying material to saturate 
the wood and the surplus to dry ofif. We first put in a 
double handful of tobacco stems; these are purchased 
from cigar factories. The box is then filled to within 
an inch of the top of the front board with fresh pine 
shavings. Redwood shavings should not be used. An 
egg broken in a nest of Redwood shavings, or any other 
form of moisture coming in contact with them in such a 
nest will badly discolor the shells of any eggs laid in 
that nest, and this discoloration is apt to prove prac- 
tically indelible. 



146 



HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR 



Designation of Chickens 

We are often asked the meaning of "Hen, Pullet, Cock- 
erel and Cocks. " We do not know the established rule of 
usage. In the hands of a dealer who is selling live birds, 
every female is a pullet — if he can get away with it, espe- 
cially in the fall when only pullets are supposed to be 
laying. Early moulters answer the purpose most 
admirably. 

With us they are "Pullets" until they have passed 
through their first complete moult ; birds hatched in Jan- 
uary go through a light moult in their first fall, but they 
are still pullets with us until the following fall. So, too, 
is a fall hatched bird. 

After the first full moult they are "Hens" ; and if we 
carried them long enough they would be "Yearling Hens" 
and "Two-year-olds/' 

The same rule applies to the males. They are "Cock- 
erels" until after the first full moult, when they become 
"Cocks." 

In table poultry we seldom get beyond the "Broiler" 
stage. Under \y 2 pounds they are usually known as 
"Squab Broilers;" from \ l / 2 up to 2*4 pounds they are 
"Broilers" and beyond that they become "Fryers" or 
"Soft Roasters." In the Leghorns especially if a young- 
bird gets into the Fryer class the marketman is partic- 
ular to see that it is still "soft-boned" — that the point of 
the breast bone is still soft and pliable. If it is not they 
are classed as "Stags" — so far as paying the producer is 
concerned; what class they take when sold to the con- 
sumer is another matter. 



DISEASES 

Foreword 

Many poultrymen deny having sickness in their flocks 
and we have even known of some operating on a large 
scale who profess to lose few if any birds. This makes 
it hard on the beginner and to the writer it seems unfair 
because of the discouragement felt by the beginner who 
encounters trouble and loses birds. The writer knows — 
he has been there. And it is his purpose herein to pre- 
pare the inexperienced for possible trouble. He will also 
give his experience as to mortality. The reader who is 
susceptible to suggestion is reminded of the fact that the 
writer earned the title of this book in spite of his experi- 
ence with disease and mortality; without that sad experi- 
ence he would long since have retired to a life of ease. It 
might be proper to add that we have met but few retired 
egg-farmers. 

What has been said in connection with diseases of 
young chicks might well be repeated here, however. Do 
not take too seriously the stuff put out by "the medicine 
man ;" bear in mind that to sell his goods he must show 
you, perhaps in your own flock, an apparent reason for 
using them, and remember that he has not come to you 
as a matter of philanthropy. He has come to you liter- 
ally looking for trouble and as is always the case he who 
seeks that finds it, especially so if he makes money by it. 

From the writer's point of view the research work that 
has been done toward eliminating or controlling disease 
among chickens is both woefully and pitifully of minor 
extent. The individual object, "just a chicken/' does not 



148 



HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR 



seem to warrant the attention being given the subject 
that is given where the individual has more money value. 
A cow or horse looks like seventy-five or one hundred, 
even one or more thousands of dollars, while a chicken 
was rated, before these strenuous times, at perhaps twen- 
ty-five or fifty cents. It is only when we consider the 
hen from the standpoint of possible and probable earn- 
ing capacity and then multiply the figure by one or more 
thousands, even hundreds of thousands (for the mor- 
tality in chickendom throughout the country runs to that 
annually), only then do we realize the importance of 
that twenty-five cent subject. 

The writer proposes then to record his observations 
and experience and to exploit his ignorant theories with 
the hope that perhaps by the very ignorance proclaimed, 
a discussion may be quickened which will lead toward 
advancement. He is ready at any time to join in a move- 
ment looking to a proper interest being taken in the sub- 
ject, and his portion of the money needed to finance the 
enterprise is likewise ready. 



Indications of Health and Disease 

There is no simpler and better method by which to 
judge the condition and health of the birds than by watch- 
ing the combs and the droppings. 

The comb of a healthy bird, excepting during the moult- 
ing season, will be a bright red. During the moult the 
brightness will disappear, the color fades to pink, and 
the comb will contract in size and may look as though 
lightly powdered over; but it will not turn color. 

A bird out of condition will show a blue or even a blue- 



WITH 4200 HENS 149 

black color in the comb. In extreme weather birds will 
show a bluish tinge in the comb and this will disappear 
if the bird is put in a dry, warm place ; but the fact that 
it is susceptible to the weather indicates that the bird is 
not in what might be termed "the pink of condition. " 

The careful poultryman will watch the drop-boards as 
regularly as he watches the nests. The droppings of a 
hen in good health and condition are voided in a rather 
compact mass, tending toward a point on one end, greyish 
in color with a decided cream-colored spot in the mass, 
and of the consistency of soft putty. Any variation in- 
dicates error somewhere. If the mass is too hard there 
is a tendency toward constipation ; if too soft, the reverse. 
In most cases the variation is due to an error in feeding. 
This may be the fault of the bird or of the feeder. 

Slight variations need cause no concern ; the bird may 
have over-eaten of one thing or another. It is only when 
violent variations are observed, variations that are ap- 
parent for days at a time, that the cause of the trouble 
must be looked for. If the drop-boards and the yards 
show masses of watery discharge, or soft yellow or 
brownish material, it is well to exercise caution. 

All flocks will show the effects of a sudden change in 
temperature, the lack, even for a short time, of pure fresh 
water, a sudden variation in diet, or the continued lack 
of some important element in the feed, such as shell, grit 
or green stuff. The feeding of immature grains, heated 
corn, or an absence of variety in the ration will also be 
apparent in the droppings. So it follows that if the off- 
color or imperfect consistency continues and no other 
sign of trouble is apparent we must look to the feed and 



150 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR 

the water. Only too often the trouble may be found in 
the water-container — it was probably emptied and 
scrubbed out two or three weeks ago and is now half full 
of a slimy mass of corruption. We have seen such. 

The droppings always seem looser in wet weather than 
in the warm summer months, due to failure of evapora- 
tion. This must not be confused with a laxative con- 
dition. 

Diseases We Have Encountered 






the 



The list of poultry diseases is almost as long as 
moral law. In our experience we have encountered and 
identified : 

Colds and Catarrh; Bronchitis; Chicken Pox and 
Canker ; Congestion or other forms of Liver Complaint ; 
Dropsy and Tumors ; Limberneck ; Clogged Crop ; Leg 
Weakness; Bumblefoot; Eggbound; and Prolapsus of 
the Oviduct. 

The commonest form of trouble in our section is colds 
and catarrh which are especially prevalent in the fall when 
very warm days are likely to be followed by cold nights. 
Frequently the change in temperature at sundown is ex- 
treme. This is especially hard on hens in the moult and 
on young pullets just coming into laying. Again, we 
have little or no rainfall from May until September ordi- 
narily,' and especially toward the end of this long dry 
season the atmosphere is heavily charged with fine dust. 

Chicken pox and canker should probably be accorded 
second place in this black list. We have had two sieges 
of it during the eight years we have been in the work, but 
in some sections it must be contended with much more 
frequently. The disease is more flourishing in damp 



WITH 4200 HENS 151 

climates. In some sections near the coast there is always 
more or less of the trouble. It has been observed that an 
attack is more virulent in cold, wet weather than in hot, 
dry atmosphere. Freezing weather appears to be no 
deterrent. 

The other troubles encountered are of more or less a 
minor character compared with the first named. They 
are the exception rather than the rule and the mortality 
due to them is insignificant. 

COLDS AND CATARRH : These troubles are easily 
recognized. Frequently the birds throw them off with 
no treatment, especially if a day of unusual weather is 
followed by a normal one or if there has been some neg- 
lect which is remedied. 

If you make a practice of going through the houses at 
night, as we do, you will get notice promptly of cold and 
catarrhal trouble. Birds will be heard to sneeze and 
cough, others will have difficulty in breathing, the breath 
coming in a sort of wheeze. At times one may be heard 
with a barking-cough ; this is more in the nature of bron- 
chitis probably. 

If the presence of the trouble is not recognized in this 
manner it may not be noticed until a more advanced stage 
is reached, when there will be a running at the nostrils, 
with inflammation at the eyes and possibly a cheesy de- 
posit in the sockets of the eyes. This may lead eventually 
to a severe swelling around the eyes. At this stage the 
eye may become entirely closed over with the cheesy 
deposit extending through the nasal passage into the 
mouth and throat. A bird in this condition will starve to 



152 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR 

death. If it is a vigorous specimen to begin with it can 
overcome the trouble if it is fed. 

Some authorities class this trouble at one or more of 
the stages described as roup or roupy catarrh. If roup 
is as contagious, as deathly and as quick in action as it 
is credited with being, the presence of these symptoms 
does not necessarily signify the presence of roup. 

CHICKEN POX AND CANKER: Careful observa- 
tion has proven to us that a siege of pox and canker is 
invariably preceded by signs in the droppings. During 
our last run of the trouble we identified these signs and 
were able to forecast within a few days of the time when 
it would break out in a given section of the plant. The 
particular sign is the voiding of an irregular mass, usually 
about one-half normal size, of a peculiar grass-green 
color and which, if it came into contact with an eggshell, 
was practically indelible. The fact that it was found 
on eggs in the nests indicates that the affected bird was 
probably laying, from which we deduce that the disease 
is of quick development. 

It is the writer's belief that it develops in the intesti- 
nal tract. This is^ contrary to the idea that the disease is 
a fungus growth, contagious through infection of wounds 
or scratches. 

Whether or not chicken pox and canker are always 
coincident is immaterial. We have never had one with- 
out the other, excepting in what the scientist terms 
"sporadic" cases which as we understand it has reference 
to a single, isolated case of a disease which is ordinarily 
epidemic. The writer recalls an instance several years 
ago where he found a perfectly developed case of chicken 



WITH 4200 HENS 153 

pox in a yard of 1,200 hens, and no other case developed 
in the flock. 

The origin of the trouble is shrouded in mystery so 
far as the writer is concerned — as much so as is "Spanish 
Influenza/' Fluent writers, poultry "experts," and men 
of science easily and airily ascribe it to filthy, unsanitary 
conditions; to infection, either from a strange bird 
brought in or from birds of the air; or to other equally 
indefinite causes. 

As to its originating or germinating only in unsanitary, 
filthy quarters — this is rather hard on those of us of the 
poultry fraternity who live and have our being in the 
welfare of our birds, and to him who has made any 
serious study of the trouble it simply brands the author 
of the statement as an ignoramus. It would be rather 
remarkable that plants conducted on so great a variety 
of plans and systems as may be found in the poultry in- 
dustry, that all of these should be permitted to degenerate 
into filth and disease almost coincidently. During our 
last siege we had calls for assistance in combating the 
trouble from points as much as thirty miles apart; from 
breeders with thousands of hens as well as from fanciers 
with a dozen birds kept in gilt cages on carpeted floors. 

As to the infection and contagion theories, we are 
equally in ignorance. Our experience is that not all of 
the birds in a flock will be attacked. Our records indi- 
cate that about 70 per cent of the birds will be immune. 
And experiments have proven that some birds cannot 
be infected. We have had healthy birds in the isolation 
ward where both pox and canker in every possible stage 
were rampant and the healthy birds could not be infected. 



154 



HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR 



We have also found ground for the belief that a two- 
year-old hen is more or less immune from infection by 
one a year younger. This cannot be given as an estab- 
lished fact because the particular two-year-old may have 
been one of the immunes. But in the development of 
the disease we had the same experience in both our 
sieges, the disease ran through different yards of hens 
of the same age at the same time, leaving the younger 
or older free of it; and when it attacked the birds of the 
other age, it ran through all of the birds hatched in that 
year regardless of where they were kept. 

It has been noted that 30 per cent of the birds were 
affected. Of this 30 per cent, 25 per cent either died or 
had to be put out of the way because of canker in both 
eyes. This indicates a mortality of 7^ per cent. The 
figure may not be taken as entirely accurate for the reason 
that it includes ordinary mortality which was not neces- 
sarily due to the pox and canker. It was found imprac- 
ticable to distinguish. 

A flock attacked by this disease will show a decrease 
of from 50 to 60 per cent in tgg production ; a flock that 
has been laying 1,000 eggs will drop to four or five hun- 
dred, and the production will reach the minimum in a 
very short time. 

The disease runs its course, in a large flock, in from 
60 to 70 days. In that time the tgg production will again 
resume normal proportions, allowing for the mortality 
and ior the time of year. It is our experience that the 
loss in production will be made good by heavier laying 
later in the same season or by abnormally high pro- 
duction in the season following. The pullets attacked 



WITH 4200 HENS 155 

during our first siege laid more eggs per bird in their 
second season than in the first, and during their second 
season they were within a few eggs of equalling the 
record of the next year's pullets. 

It should be kept in mind that what has been .said 
herein has reference especially to pox and canker run- 
ning at the same time. We have never had one without 
the other. From our observations we are not fearful of 
pox as a separate disease. The writer believes it would 
run its course in a short time without dosing and if the 
birds are vigorous at the start and have been well cared 
for that the mortality would be negligible. That it exerts 
a harmful influence stands admitted, but in conjunction 
with canker, if the canker is a separate disease, it is far 
from harmless. The only deaths occurring during a run 
of the trouble, the cause of which we have been able to 
identify beyond question, have been due to the canker. 

Symptoms: Chicken Pox may be recognized by a 
wart-like, pimply eruption on the comb, wattles, face, 
and on the edges of the eyelids. In its earlier stages the 
eruption is light colored and transparent, darkening as it 
develops, and finally peeling off in a scale. We have had 
cases where one or both eyelids were affected to the ex- 
tent even of one eye being entirely closed and the other 
almost entirely. If even the tiniest portion of one lid 
remains uncovered so that the bird can find feed and 
water, recovery may be made if the bird was in good 
health and flesh at the start. 

Canker in some respects might be likened unto a can- 
cerous growth, in consistency much like gristle. It may 
form in the throat, usually on the rim of the opening 



156 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR 

into the windpipe, or in the ball of one or both eyes. It 
develops very rapidly. When the seat of the growth is 
in the windpipe life or death is dependent entirely on 
whether the enlargement is downward or upward. If 
downward the bird will choke to death, oftener than not 
before the trouble is apparent. Birds will be found dead 
under the roosts or in the yards or nests — fine, plump 
hens. Examination if carefully made invariably dis- 
closes canker in the windpipe below the opening. 

If the development is outward the bird may be saved 
if caught in time. Presence of the trouble is indicated 
by a slight wheeze in breathing, the mouth being held 
open slightly all the time. The bird will live as long 
as there is even a pinhole through which to breath. 
Large plump birds will be observed at times, apparently 
in the pink of condition, whose bright red combs turn 
to a dark blue before your very eyes. This is strangula- 
tion. Quick work will save many such cases. 

Other Diseases 

A cropbound hen usually advertises her complaint. 
The crop bulges out or hangs downward. We have had 
them with crops as hard as a stone. It is due to some- 
thing clogging the opening from the crop. 

Limberneck is usually due to ptomaine poisoning, the 
result of eating decaying matter. The bird loses control 
of the muscles of the neck and will lie with its head on 
the ground, the neck stretched out. Again, the neck 
may become rigid. 

Dropsy and tumors in the egg bag very often run 
together. Older hens are more likely to be affected than 



WITH 4200 HENS 157 

young ones. The rear portions of the bird will swell 
to great size and the bird is literally heavy as lead. 

Congestion of the liver and other liver troubles are 
usually evidenced by discolored combs. The comb turns 
blue, even blue-black, and remains so. This must not 
be confused with a somewhat similar discoloration due 
to a chill or continued exposure to bad weather ; in the 
latter case the comb will resume normal color if the 
bird is put in a warm dry place. 

Prolapsus is a projection of the egg-laying organs; the 
entire egg bag will sometimes be forced out. This is 
commoner with young pullets just beginning to lay, al- 
though older hens will be afflicted under certain condi- 
tions. 

Bumblefoot, so far as the name is concerned, must 
have been invented by a practical joker. It is simply a 
sore foot. The bird sustains an injury or runs a sliver 
into the ball of the foot resulting in a puss formation. 

Egg-Bound is the inability of the hen to pass the 
egg f usually a fully developed egg. The size of the egg 
is not necessarily the cause — it is more likely a paralysis, 
perhaps temporary, of the expulsion muscles. Hens in 
this condition may remain on the nests all day and be 
found there at night, showing signs of distress, or more 
likely they will be off and on the nests and may be ob- 
served straining to pass the egg. 

Leg Weakness is common among pullets just ma- 
turing and coming into laying and cases are found at 
times amongst the older hens. We class the former as 
being due to some defect in the laying organs ; the latter 
is more often rheumatism, although cases are recalled 



which conform to the description of tuberculosis given 
by that eminent authority, Professor Dryden (Oregon). 
# A pullet attacked with leg weakness goes down com- 
pletely and her legs are useless. There is no evidence of 
pain when the bird is picked up and the legs are manip- 
ulated. 

The cases amongst hens which we class as rheuma- 
tism are distinguished from the pullet cases by the fact 
that the bird shows signs of pain if the legs are touched. 
The bird does not lose flesh and the appetite is normal. 
The cases which may be tuberculosis differ in that the 
bird is usually thin and emaciated when the legs fail and 
the appetite is abnormal — the bird will eat almost con- 
stantly if food is within reach. Happily these cases are 
extremely rare. 

We have never identified diphtheria and we have never 
heard it claimed that either true roup or cholera was ever 
identified in Southern California. 

It may be noted that we do not specifically mention 
diarrhoea. This is because of a belief that most cases 
of looseness of the bowels are due either to a cold settling 
in the intestines or to defective feed stuffs. 



Medicines 

In our earlier experience we bought and used perhaps 
99 per cent of the various and sundry "remedies" offered 
for poultry diseases. As we grew older (perhaps not 
wiser) we came to be like the man who had one standard 
remedy: if too cold he took whiskey and if too hot he 
took whiskey. 

We buy no "dope" of any kind. Our standard remedies 



WITH 4200 HENS 159 

are : Common Epsom Salts ; Common Baking Soda, and 
Douglas Mixture. 

Douglas Mixture is said to be as old as the hills ; here is 
the formula : 

8 Ozs. Copperas 

y 2 Oz. Sulphuric Acid. 

Dissolve the Copperas in one gallon of water, using a 
stone or glass jar. When the Copperas is entirely dis- 
solved, which, with frequent stirring, it should be in about 
24 hours, add the Sulphuric Acid. Allow it to "set" until 
the mixture is perfectly clear. It is then ready to use. 
It is poisonous. Its use will be stated. It costs seven 
cents per gallon. 




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TREATMENT OF DISEASE 

The treatment of disease in large flocks of birds is quite 
a different matter than the treatment that may be ac- 
corded one or a few dozen. You will appreciate this to 
its fullest extent if you try to handle several thousand 
birds with colds or chicken pox and canker on the basis 
given in poultry-remedy literature or in the bulletins is- 
sued by the Federal Government or the State Experiment 
Stations. Try it. 

The individual treatment that may be given as will 
be herein outlined is the result of years of work with 
sick birds by the writer's wife who came to be quite 
an authority and whose work was eminently suc- 
cessful. She saved hundreds of birds by putting in time 
which could not be spared from the general handling of 
the flock and the management of the plant. A beginner, 
or a poultryman at any stage of the work, who has an 
orphan-and-stray-cat-loving wife, can save many birds in 
the same way. 

Treatment in Flocks 

Primarily, we prefer "dosing" the birds through the 
water rather than through the feed. A bird is much more 
likely to go without food than without water. The water 
on our place is piped all over the plant. A main line ex- 
tends through each of the two long rows of houses. At 
the point where this main line enters the first yard a 
52-gallon barrel is installed on a platform six feet high. 
The barrel is connected to the water line with a shutoff 
valve just below the barrel. Another shutoff valve is 



162 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR 

put in the main line just outside the barrel connection. 
The barrel is equipped with a drain pipe on which a screw 
cap is set, to permit of the barrel being drained if desired 
and to remove sediment. The barrel is filled by opening 
both shutofif valves. When filled the main line is cut off. 
When "dope" is to be given it is put in the barrel. This 
saves a lot of time and work. If some such arrangement 
is not had it is necessary to watch and refill the water 
pots promptly. 

COLDS, CATARRH AND LOOSENESS OF THE 
BOWELS. If signs of colds show up the birds are 
promptly given a dose of Salts. We give them at the rate 
of one pound to 250 birds. The Salts are first thoroughly 
dissolved in warm water, which is then poured into the 
barrel, and the main feed line is cut off. We usually put 
half the dose in the barrel at night and the balance when 
the first barrel is consumed. If this quantity is not con- 
sumed by 3 or 4 o'clock in the afternoon the first dose is 
made stronger. The birds are given fresh water at 3 or 
4. Fresh water is given the next day ; and on the day fol- 
lowing the dose is repeated. We have found this the 
most satisfactory system. 

The day after the second dose of Salts, Douglas Tonic 
is put in the barrel at the rate of one teaspoonful to each 
quart of water. A measure is made to gauge the quantity 
needed to each barrelful. The tonic is continued for two 
or three days, dependent on the severity of the outbreak. 
If the trouble continues, both Salts and Tonic are re- 
peated the following week and until the attack is checked. 

A very good variation in long continued run of colds 
is to give soda, at the rate of one pound to 250 birds, each 



WITH 4200 HENS 163 

day following the day of Salts, this in turn followed by 
the tonic. 

Should any of the birds show swelled faces or sore 
eyes they are removed to the hospital yard. 

CHICKEN POX AND CANKER. We have found 
nothing that will cure these diseases in combination, and 
we have found nothing that will protect birds from it. It 
is our experience that it will run through the whole flock, 
once it starts, regardless of the measures taken to check 
or prevent it. Our course has been different perhaps from 
the ordinary in that we never make an experiment on 
the whole flock — nothing can be learned in that way. 
Previous to our last siege, when pox and canker were rife 
in the country, we used a much-advertised remedy on tw r o 
divisions of our flock, as a tonic and preventive. These 
divisions when attacked showed within reasonable de- 
grees the same percentage affected and the same mor- 
tality as did those divisions not given the preventive. And 
one of these divisions was given the further special treat- 
ment of a dampened mash in the evening, the "dope" 
being used in the mash as well as in the drinking water. 

We have not tried vaccination. Poultrymen of experi- 
ence and judgment who tried it a year or two ago reported 
most unsatisfactory results, and while we have been un- 
able to gain definite figures for comparison yet the in- 
ference was that as many birds were lost, either as an 
immediate result of the treatment or afterwards, as we 
lost without it. We may try it some time ; but if we do 
it will be on half the pullets from each hatch. 

At first signs of the trouble we give the whole flock, 
not only the division in which it appears, but the whole 



164 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR 

flock, a dose of Salts — 1 pound to 250 birds, and the dose 
is repeated three times, on alternate days. Fresh water 
is given each day at from 3 to 4 o'clock. Douglas Mix- 
ture is then given steadily for one week. 

Meantime a certain part of the day is given over to 
picking up affected birds. These are put into the hos- 
pital. They are given no special treatment there except- 
ing that Douglas Mixture is kept in the water con- 
stantly. 

Where canker in the windpipe occurs, if it is discovered 
in time, the canker is removed with a bone crochet hook. 
The bird may best be held by crowding the feet between 
your knees. The head of the bird is held in the left hand, 
the mouth being opened with the thumb and forefinger. 
Quick work is necessary to success. The hook is slid into 
the mouth and is run into the windpipe when the bird 
draws its breath ; the opening is always expanded for a 
brief instant. In many cases the canker can be peeled 
out with one deft stroke. If it breaks it is advisable to 
paint it over with a weak solution of some disinfectant; 
we use a 10 per cent Argerole, diluted heavily with water. 
It is applied by means of the tip of a feather* which can be 
run through the opening into the windpipe. Strip the 
quill until but a brush remains. In 24 hours another ef- 
fort can be made to bring out the whole mass. Two or 
three applications will usually soften the growth to such 
an extent that it will come out readily. If it continues 
to stick tight the case is hopeless. We have cleaned 
throats of the tight canker by patient work and brought 
the bird back to laying, but the canker invariably returns 
after a time and the bird must be put away. 



WITH 4200 HENS 165 

Where the canker fastens in an eye the eye is lost. 
In this respect canker must be distinguished from simple 
pox. Pox-scales will form on the eyelids and close the 
eyes temporarily but if the bird is watched and is hand- 
fed and watered regularly, the sight will not be lost ; it 
is, in fact, not affected at all. It is simply a question of 
keeping the bird from starving to death. The application 
of carbolated vaseline to such cases will hasten recovery ; 
but they will recover without it, as may be learned by 
observing a bird who has but one eye closed with the 
pox-scale. We do not give individual treatment in such 
cases. Where canker attacks both eyes the bird should 
be put away immediately — the case is hopeless. We have 
experimented with removing the canker when one eye 
is attacked but found it conducive to no particular good. 
It is painful to the bird and a trial to the operator. The 
growth will eventually slough off, carrying the eye-ball 
with it. 

Where an eye is lost in this manner the bird need not 
necessarily be disposed of. If it is in good flesh and con- 
dition when attacked there is better than an even chance 
that it will be profitable to carry it until the next moult. 

Individual Treatment 

When time is available for individual treatment a bird 
with a cold can be cured quickly. A teaspoonful of castor 
oil; a careful cleansing of the nostrils (of the eyes also 
if affected) with a soft cloth; the injection into each nos- 
tril and the cleft of the mouth of a minute quantity of 
kerosene, by means of a little "squirt" oil can, milk-moist- 
ened mash for a few days, or bread and milk — these meas- 



166 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR 

ures will result in a quick and complete recovery. When 
a number of birds are confined in the hospital and colds 
are prevalent we keep Douglas Mixture in the water con- 
stantly. If this is not available a light film of kerosene 
on the drinking pot will be found of much benefit. 

Crop-Bound. We have had little success in treating 
such cases. The giving of large quantities of olive oil, 
a tablespoonful twice a day, along with a kneading 
of the crop, has a tendency to soften the mass, but this 
rarely removes the obstruction. It is worth trying, how- 
ever. In exceptional cases the crop may be opened by 
making an incision with a sharp knife (a safety razor 
blade is a good instrument). The mass is then removed, 
the crop is washed out with a disinfectant and the wound 
is sewed up with silk thread and a fine needle. The bird 
should then be given soft food for a time. 

Limberneck. A tablespoonful of castor oil is the best 
attempt at curing this trouble. We have never had a 
bird that was worth keeping after such an attack. 

Dropsy and Tumors. There is no cure for these trou 
les. It is a waste of time and effort. 

Liver Troubles. These are due usually to improper 
feeding and a lack of exercise. The fault may be in the 
individual bird. If a bird does not thrive on the treat 
ment accorded our flock as a whole we have no time to 
spend on it. If a number of blue combs show up, we 
administer the Salts treatment. 

Prolapsus. If the bird is caught in time she may be 
saved; otherwise, nine times in ten, the other birds 
will kill her by drawing out the entire intestinal tract 
The parts should be carefully washed in warm water 



• 



: 



WITH 4200 HENS 167 

which a good disinfectant has been added, and should 
then be pushed back into place. The bird must then be 
kept entirely alone. If another egg does not follow within 
a few days the bird may be able to retain the parts in 
place. Otherwise she had better be used for the table. 
She is in perfect health and there is no more objection 
to her use for food than would be a case of a broken leg. 

If pepper or other forcing stuffs have been in use ; or 
if some prepared ''laying dope" has been fed previous to 
a case or a number of cases of prolapsus, the use of such 
things should be discontinued immediately. If your hens 
will yield you no profit without them either you or the 
strain of your hens is at fault. 

We have cases here every season when the pullets first 
come into laying and we have found no means of check- 
ing the trouble. It seems a penalty attached to quick 
development. We have had it even when the birds were 
kept on a ration without meat product of any kind. 

Bumblefoot. The bird should be caught immediately 
and be put where the wound can be kept out of the 
dirt. The wound should be opened when pus develops 
and should be carefully washed out. A bandage may be 
applied — it is another matter to keep it in place. 

Egg-Bound. The hen should be held over a bucket 
of very warm water, not hot, but uncomfortably warm, 
with the hind parts resting in the water; this will have a 
tendency to relax the parts. Frequently the egg will be 
passed when this has been done ; if not, grease the middle 
finger with vaseline and inserting it into the egg-duct, 
grease the walls of the duct and if possible turn the tgg. 
Repeat the warm water treatment if necessary. As a 



168 



HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR 



final resort the egg may be broken, but this is desperate 
treatment. If the particles of shell are not removed care- 
fully, or if a piece of shell is thrust through the wall of 
the egg-duct, infection is likely and the hen will be lost. 

Leg Weakness. We have made all manner of experi- 
ments with pullets that go down on their haunches at the 
time of maturity and have never been able to effect & cure. 

Hens with what we classify as rheumatism may be 
brought back to a certain degree, but the cure is seldo 
permanent. It is a saving of time to get rid of them. 

And the thin, wasted cases have never been experi 
mented with — they are put away immediately. 



An Occasional Dose of Salts 

During the hot summer months we make a practice ol 
giving the entire flock a dose of Salts about once eacV 
month. The dose is at the rate of one pound to 250 birds. 
It is given just once and is followed next day by soda at 
the same rate. 

Conclusion as to Diseases 

Occasion is taken to reassure the beginner on the sub- 
ject of disease among the birds. Colds and the minor 
troubles discussed you are likely to have almost any time 
and regardless of the care given the birds; and so far as 
pox and canker are concerned, we have had but two sieges 
of it in eight years. It is not amiss to suggest that if no 
troubles were to be contended with there would be little 
if any profit in the work. The writer has been through 
all forms of discouragement but he has made a good thing 
out of it, and there is no reason why you should not do 
as well. 






WITH 4200 HENS 169 

Parasites 

In this respect the poultryman may have four things 
to contend with : Mites, Lice, Scaly Leg and Worms. 

Mites are the chicken house bedbug and they are as 
much a disgrace to the poultryman as the bedbug is to 
the housewife. The mites live and breed in the house. 
They attack their host on the roost at night and suck the 
blood. If you are as careful and regular in spraying as 
you should be you will have none of them. A common 
form of entry for them is to put a new roost or a piece of 
new lumber in the house without first spraying it. Should 
they gain entry on you in this manner your safest course 
is to spray their place of abode every day until you get 
rid of them. 

The family tree of the louse family is a widespreading 
oak. None should concern you excepting the body louse 
which lives on the bird. As our chicks are all incubator 
hatched we have none to contend with at the start. Our 
observation is that lice are present on mature fowls in 
almost every large flock. The pullets usually stay free 
of them until they are nine or ten months old. We do 
not concern ourselves with them. We see to it that the 
birds have loose moist soil to dust and wallow in all the 
time and that is as far as we go. We have never found 
lice in sufficient numbers to be dangerous excepting on 
birds out of condition that are not removed promptly, and 
on male birds. The males are likely to be negligent in 
dusting. When a sick bird is removed if it is lousy it is 
dusted with "Devil's Dust" to give it a chance to regain 
its normal habits ; and the male birds are given a hand- 
dusting twice a year. Some birds will keep themselves 



170 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR 






entirely free of body lice ; but you are likely to find lice 
on many of them. 

Scaly leg, which may look like crusted warts, is said 
to be due to a mite which burrows under the skin of the 
legs. A good way to get rid of them is to wash the legs 
in warm, soapy water, then applying either a mixture of 
equal parts of kerosene and lard, or perhaps carbolated 
vaseline. Several treatments may be necessary. If a 
flock is infested a shallow pan may be set in the doorway 
where the birds must pass over it; fill the pan half full 
of water and add a film of kerosene. This is said to be a 
good remedy. We have never tried it. The only case 
of scaly leg we ever had was on an old moth-eaten hen 
with spurs about two inches long, wished on us by a 
kind-hearted neighbor who was moving away and who 
could not think of disposing of "Old Pet." She was cured 
in the manner first described. 

Worms have never given us any trouble. We find signs 
of worms in the droppings at times. Should they show 
up to any extent we have recourse to our salts and tonic 
treatment. This is as far as we go. 

Mortality 

There is only one true method of arriving at the per- 
centage of hens lost. You must count the pullets hatched 
and placed in the laying house and when you sell them 
off later, count the number you sell. This sounds so sim- 
ple that it borders on the ridiculous but it is surprising 
how few poultrymen do it — if what they say on the sub- 
ject of death losses is to be taken as a criterion. 

Our experience is that hens will die off constantly, re- 









WITH 4200 HENS 171 

gardless of the care given them, when they are being kept 
at high efficiency of egg production. It is also our experi- 
ence that the percentage lost increases with the age of the 
hens — there will be greater losses among two-year-olds 
than among the yearlings ; and greater among the year- 
lings than among the pullets. In small flocks the per- 
centage does not seem to be so great but this is because 
it does not involve the greater number. If two hens are 
lost out of twenty in the course of two laying seasons the 
loss does not seem as great as when five hundred are lost 
out of five thousand. 

Our experience indicates that from 10 to 15 per cent 
is likely to be the mortality each year where the hens are 
kept through tw T o laying seasons. The experience in- 
cludes going through two sieges of chicken pox and 
canker in eight years — the mortality from this cause is 
included. And as already suggested, the mortality is 
likely to be heavier in the second year than in the first. 

Culling 

We cull constantly, but more especially during tnc 
moulting season. The work is based entirely on the idea 
of eliminating birds that are not in the pink of condition. 
Rainy weather, foggy mornings, hot evenings — these are 
good culling times. If a run of colds or other trouble 
develops — and we all have them — a certain hour of the 
day, morning or evening, is given over to culling. A bird 
out of condition will remain on the roost late and will go 
back to it early; a trip through the house late in the 
morning and early in the evening enables one to pick up 
out-of-condition birds quickly and easily. Moulting time 



WITH 4200 HENS 173 

is an especially good time to cull. Few weaklings will 
survive the moult; those that do survive it are easily 
spotted. 

Culled birds are not necessarily disposed of. They are 
placed in the hospital or in one of the observation yards 
and houses and are given a chance by having fewer com- 
panions to get on their feet again. By far the larger part 
of our culls are carried over then until the moulting sea- 
son. They are not put back into the main flock, where 
they might be used for breeders, but in a special division 
assigned to returned culls. We have found this a profit- 
able course to pursue. The birds that do not speedily 
come back to good condition are either put away or are 
sold to market when they are again in a healthy condition. 

We do not go through the flock, handling each bird, 
with the idea of culling out non-producers or selecting 
special birds for breeding purposes. 

Keeping Accounts and Records 

The writer attributes a large part of his success in the 
work to the keeping of most accurate accounts and 
records and his advice, to the beginner especially, is to 
take the trouble of doing so. It matters little or nothing 
what sort of books are used — a common pencil-writing 
tablet will do as well as an elaborate set of books. 

You should record somewhere the number of chicks 
hatched in each lot and the date of the hatch. When the 
chicks are taken from the brooder house enter on this 
record the number removed. Here is an illustration : 



174 



HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR 



March 15, 1919—1,200 Chicks 



Cockerels to Cockerel House 

From Brooder House 490 

May 21 — from pullets 22 



Pullets to Laying House 

From Brooder House 580 

May 21 — to cockerels 22 



May 31 — sold 



512 
. 78 Mav dead 



558 
.. 16 



June 1 — balance 434 



June 1 — balance.. 



.542 



This should be continued until the cockerels are all dis- 
posed of and the pullets are laying. The latter are then 
carried into an account entitled "Record of Laying Hens." 

The four examples on page 176 constitute the whole 
of the system necessary from this time forward. Rule 
off a page in the tablet for each of the four. It may appear 
at first glance like a complicated matter, especially io 
one not accustomed to keeping accounts, but if the 
reader will take the trouble to apply it to his own case 
and facts he should have little difficulty in mastering 
the plan. 

It is well worth while. It is the writer's belief that if 
the plan covered by these four sheets was put into use on 
every commercial egg farm in the country, a far greater 
percentage would be successful. The poultryman who 
keeps these records faithfully knows at all times just what 
he is doing and what each and every yard of his birds are 
doing. And therein lies a big factor of success. If your 
"Earnings per Hen" record showed month after month, 
one year after another, that yards of birds hatched after 
a certain time were always far behind yards hatched at 
another time, you would sit up nights if necessary to get 






WITH 4200 HENS 175 

your birds out in the more profitable month. That is 
what we did. 

As a result of such records we can readily make com- 
parison of earnings of birds hatched in different months 
during the last eight years. We know how the cost of 
feeding has varied from month to month in all that time ; 
how many pullets we raised, how many of them were 
later sold, and how many died off. 

It is not only financially profitable to have such records 
but it enables one to place a true value on the data, sta- 
tistics, and information of a general nature that is passed 
along by word of mouth and in the poultry press and in 
books on poultry. 

Our accounts and records go into the subject much 
more deeply. A general set of books is kept, of course, 
and in addition we have records that tell us that an 
average of 4,214 hens consumed in one year 302,398 
pounds of grain and mash, an average of 70.57 pounds 
per hen ; that the grain and mash consumption was at the 
rate of 6.57 pounds per dozen of eggs produced, varying 
from 4.4 pounds in April to 12.22 pounds in November; 
the poundage of feed stuffs used in maturing pullets ; the 
cost of raising pullets ; the cost of producing a dozen 
eggs, one year for another. We have all this data. It 
takes time and a lot of work to go into it as extensively 
as this, but the writer enjoys it; he enjoys doing it and 
he enjoys the accurate knowledge thereby acquired. But 
it is not necessary to go into it as deeply as this. 



176 



HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR 



SHEET Mo. 1 



RECORD OF LAYING HENS 







1919 Stock 




January Pullets hatched .... 
May, Cockerels out 




1350 
18 


March Pullets hatched 

July Dead . . 


. . . 1870 

7 




.12 

. 7 


August 1, 1919, Balance 

October, Dead 

November 1, 1919, Balance. . . . 




June 1, 1919, Balance 

June, Cockerels out 

Dead 


1332 
19 


. . . 1863 
4 


. . . 1859 


July 1, 1919, Balance 

July, Dead 


1313 
12 


August 1, 1919, Balance. . . . 
October, Dead 


1301 
3 




November 1, 1919, Balance. . 


1298 





When the birds are sold, mark the number and by preserving the sheet you can 
always tell what mortality occurred in that particular lot. 



SHEET No. 2 

NOVEMBER 1919 EGG RECORD 















Amount 




January 


March 


Total 


Wholesale 


Sales 


Received 


Date 


1919 


1919 


Eggs 


Price 


(dozens) 


(or Value) 


1 


317 


706 


1023 


60c 


690 


$ 414.00 


2 


328 


817 


1145 








3 


302 


786 


1088 








4 


397 


792 


1186 








etc. 


etc. 


etc. 


etc. 


etc. 


etc. 


etc. 


Total * 


12,980 


18,590 


31,570 




2,610 


$ 1,566 00 



Eggs consumed or eggs used lor your own hatching should be entered in "Sales" 
columns at the price on that day. 

* "Total" is assumed to represent the proper total of day by day figures. 






WITH 4200 HENS 



177 



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178 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR 

Rules for Success 

The writer. has often been asked what the requisites 
are for success in egg-farming. This may vary with 
different individuals. So far as his success is concerned 
he attributes it to : 

First, never getting tired ; never being too tired to do 
something that will add to the comfort and well-being of 
the birds. 

Second, mastering the art or science of brooding chicks 
and raising large numbers of pullets. 

Third, renewing at least 60 per cent of the flock each 
year with young pullets. 

Fourth, concentrating on one particular branch of the 
work and keeping everlastingly at it. 

Fifth, keeping accurate records and accounts so that 
he knows at every stage of the work what the results are 
in dollars and cents. 

Sixth, asking the giver of advice for his practical ex- 
perience on a commercial scale before acting on it. 

Seventh, disregarding the clock so far as the 8-hour 
day is concerned and working not only hard, but effi- 
ciently, so that every minute is made to count and 
neither time nor effort is wasted. 

Profits Derived in 1918 

Our gains and losses during the year 1918 were as 
follows : 



WITH 4200 HENS 179 

Received from sale of eggs $22,325.03 

Received from sale of fertilizer 300.70 

Total gains " $22,625.73 

Feed and Supplies $ 9,623.46 

Hired Labor 1,419.45 

Water Taxes (Including 

household use) 103.40 

Sundry Farm Expenses 161.54 

Interest Paid, and all Taxes 930.82 

Total losses 12,238.67 

Difference— Gain for the Year.. $10,387.06 

Against this gain is a charge for depreciation on build- 
ings and income taxes for 1918 payable in 1919. There 
is an additional gain by reason of the fact that there was 
a net increase in the flock of 632 above mortality. 

The reader who analyzes these figures carefully will 
readily find the answer to the question of how this great 
profit was made. The writer, with the help of one man 
constantly 6 days in the week; another man for a short 
time during the brooding-and-heavy-laying season; and 
a third man coming in for one day every ten days to do 
the cleaning, did all the work. More than three thousand 
pullets were raised in the spring of 1918; and when the 
maximum hired help was on duty between 10,500 and 
11,000 birds, young and old, were being cared for. 

The hired help worked eight hours a day. The writer 
worked until the work was done; 16-hour days were 
common during the brooding-season, and 24-hour days 
sometimes happen. 

It is a man's-sized job. 



INDEX 



Page 

Acreage needed 17 

Alarm system 46-70 

Alfalfa 39-119 

Anatomical tests 143 

Awnings 48 

Baby Chicks : Caring for 69 

Carrying 6 7 

Hatching 66-133 

Balancing feed 85-119 

Barley 135 

Bowel trouble 96-158 

Blue combs 148 

Breeding plan 137 

Breeding stock 112-114-13 7 

Breed to keep 21 

Broilers 113-146 

Broken eggs 129 

Bronchitis 150 

Brooder houses 43-48 

Brooding system 69 

Broody coops 61 

Buildings: Avoid fads 13 

Cost of 65 

How to face 13 

Type of 13 

Type we use 43 

Using old ones 15 

Bumblefoot 150-15 7-167 

Buying partly developed chicks 101 

Buying pullets 35 

Calling the birds 124 

Canker 150-152-163 

Capital required 28 

Carrying baby chicks 67 

Catarrh 150-151 

Cats 101 

Chicken pox 150-152-168 

Chick feed 72 

Chick mash 81-83 

Chick troughs 81-87-107 

Chilling 90-93-96 

Cholera 158 

City locations 11 

Cleaning .100-134 

Clogged crops 150-156-166 

Closing houses at night 118 

Closing nests 129 

Coccidiosis 96 

Cockerel house 48-112 

Cockerels: Selecting 102-113-137 

Selling 114 

Cocks . 146 

Colds .".*/.".*.*.".*.*/.*.*.*.'.V6-ib9-150-lV2-165 

Combs indicate health 148 

Comparative production 142 

Cooling eggs 130 



Co-operative marketing 132 

Cost of: Buildings 65 

Chicks 28 

Feeding 125 

Raising pullets 28 

Crossing breeds 22 

Cross section of laying house 54 

Crying chicks 76 

Culling 110-171 

Culls 110-114-173 

Danger periods 92 

Dead chicks 93 

Designation of chickens 146 

Diagram of our plant 40 

Diarrhoea 95 

Diphtheria 158 

Discolored comb 148 

Diseases of chicks 91 

Diseases of chickens 14 7-150 

Disinfecting 16-134 

Disinfectants 134 

Disturbances 123 

Doctoring chicks 93 

Double fences 19 

Double yards 117 

Douglas Mixture 92-159-162 

Droppings 135-148 

Dropsy 150-156-166 

Dry mash , 118 

Eggbound 150-157-167 

Egg room 42-64 

Egg yield per hen 139 

Eggs: Cooling 130 

Gathering 128 

Grades 129 

Grading 129 

Marketing 131-133 

Packing 129 

Retailing 131 

Selecting for hatching 68-13 7 

Electric lights 141 

Fall hatching 24 

Feed: Balancing . . . 119 

Costs 125 

House 39-64 

Pails 82-121 

Weighing 85-119 

Feeding: Chicks 70 

Broody hens 125 

Cockerels 111-115 

Indoors 121-124 

Laying hens 118 

Outdoors 90 

Time of 119 



INDEX — Continued 



Fences 4 7-62 

Freshening yards 29-135 

Frights 77-123-145 

Fryers 146 

Gate latches 53 

Gates 42-63 

Gathering eggs 128 

Getting ready for chicks 70 

Grading: Broilers 114 

Eggs 129 

Hens 139 

Grain mixing 123 

Grains used 122 

Greenstuff 83-119-135 

Greenstuff, space for 21-4 8 

Grit 119 

Hatching 66-69 

Hatching: Fall 24 

Spring 24 

Time for 24 

Hatching eggs: 

Selecting 68-13 7 

Selling 133 

Health — indications of 148 

Hens 138-146 

Hens per acre 17 

Housing the layers 1 1 7 

Hospital quarters 43-63 

Indications of health and disease 148 

Indigestion 94 

Individual treatment 165 

January hatching 25 

January pullets 103 

Keeping accounts 173 

Keeping hens indoors 118 

Lath ladders 107 

Laying houses 51-54 

Laying mash 110-118 

Laying out the plant 17 

Leg weakness: Chicks 93 

Hens 150-157-168 

Lice: Cockerels 169 

Hens 169 

Young chicks 100 

Limberneck 150-156-166 

Litter 70-12 7 

Liver trouble 150-157-166 

Locating an eggfarm 9 

Manure: Disposition of 135 

Value of 135 

Weight of 135 



Page 

Marketing; Broilers 114 

Eggs 131-133 

Co-operative 132 

Hens 138 

Mash: Formula 118 

Troughs 54-58 

Wet 121 

Mating 137 

Medicines 158 

Method of feeding 119 

Mites 100-160 

Mixing grain 123 

Mortality: Chicks 91 

Hens 170 

Moult 121 

Moving pullets 105 

Nests 54-59 

Nest material 145 

No-yard system 16 

Number of hens in house 105-117 

Opening the nests 129 

Packing eggs 129 

Parasites 100-169 

Peewee eggs 130 

Pepper 167 

Percentage of chicks raised 91 

Percentage of pullets raised 91 

Piling up 109 

Plan of our plant 37 

Ploughing 135 

Profitable age of hens 138 

Profit to be expected 22 

Prolapsus of oviduct 150-157-166 

Puffy crops 94 

Pullets 146 

Pullet eggs 130 

Reducing heat in brooder house 74-83 

Retailing eggs 131 

Rheumatism 157-16S 

Roasters 146 

Roosts for chicks 45-105 

Roup 152-158 

Rules for success 178 

Salts 93-159-162-168 

Scaly leg 169-170 

Segregating cockerels 90-137 

Selecting: Breeding cockerels 102-113-137 

Hatching eggs 68-13 7 

Hens 13S 

Selling: Baby chicks 133 

Broilers 113 

Co-operative 132 

Hatching eggs 133 

Hens 138 



INDEX — Continued 



Page 

Shell 119 

Size of eggs 25-144 

Soda 79-94-159-163-168 

Soil best adapted 12 

Spraying 100-134 

Spring hatching 24 

Sprouted oats 8 7 

Sprouting oats 127 

Starting small 33 

Stags » 146 

Surveying 18 

Swollen eyes 151 

Taking out cockerels 90-102 

Time of feeding 119 

Time of hatching 69 

Toe-picking 75-94 

Training the cat 101 

Trapnesting 143 

Treatment of disease 161 

Trees 21 

Troughs: For chicks 81-87-10 7 

For hens 54-58 

Tumors 150-156-166 

Turning off the stove ; 104 

Two-hundred egg hens ,..141 

Use of brooder yards 89 

Using rented place 29 



Page 

Vaccination 163 

Visitors 77-124 

Watering broody hens 62 

Watering chicks 72 

Watering device : Chicks 72 

Hens 58 

Water pots — care of 128 

Water shed 57 

Weighing the feed : Chicks 85 

Hens 119 

Weight of manure 135 

Wet mash 121 

When to sell hens 138 

When to start 24 

W 7 here to feed 123 

Where to locate 9 

White diarrhoea 95 

Worms 169-170 

Yard: Freshening 29-135-136 

Gates 42-63 

Our plan 40-62 

Space needed 17 

Yards 16-17 

Yards or no-yards 16 

Yield per hen 139 



